10 Spiritual Questions and Their Answers
Question 1: Why is there evil in the world?
If God exists, why is there evil in the world? You know, this is a difficult stumbling block and question for many people. The simplest way to look at this question is to examine God’s nature and his desire for mankind. Look at the logic. God loves us and wants us to love him back. And how could we love him back unless we have the freedom to not love?
God could have made us like robots who do nothing more than say, “I love you. I love you. I love you.” But we’d be forced to do that and that wouldn’t be real love. Love is a choice. And if you have a choice you have to be able to choose not to love and that in itself is the nature of evil. Evil is choosing not to love. So when God gave us the freedom to choose, he gave us not only our greatest blessing, but he also gave us our greatest curse because we can choose to do right or choose to do wrong.
The reason there’s evil in the world is not because of God, but because God gave us the freedom to choose. Now the potential for love outweighs the existence of evil, because you see, evil is only going to exist for a short time, but love is going to go on forever. And all of the suffering and all of the death that we see in the world today are the result because man has chosen to make wrong choices.
God could have taken our freedom, but He didn’t. I hope you’ll use your freedom to choose God.
Question 2: Is Jesus really God?
Well when you think about it you only have three options as to who Jesus Christ was. You see, Jesus claimed to be God. He said things like, “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the father except through me.” He claimed to be God many, many times. Now, that means either:
- He is who he says He was
- He was the biggest liar in history or
- He was crazy, He was a lunatic on the order of the man who calls himself a fried egg.
You see, you can’t just say Jesus was a good man. I’ve had many friends who said, “Oh, I believe Jesus was a good man.” Well He couldn’t have been a good man and said those things He said. For instance, if I said to you, “I’m Rick Warren and I’m a good teacher and a good husband.” You might say, “Okay, I buy that.” But if I said to you, “I’m Rick Warren and I’m God and I’m the only way to heaven.” Well, you would have to make a decision. You couldn’t say I was a good person because a good person wouldn’t say that. You’d either say, “He is who he says he was, or he’s a liar or he’s crazy.”
Now Jesus didn’t just expect us to believe Him and take Him at His word. He said, “I’m going to prove the claim that I am God.” He said, “I’m going to let people kill me on a cross, then let them bury me. I’ll be dead for three days and then I’ll come back to life.” And, of course, that was the event that changed history. The resurrection of Jesus Christ. Every person since then refers to Jesus Christ, whether they believe in Him or not, every time you right a date, A.D. or B.C., what’s the reference point? Jesus Christ. Because it was the event that split history when Jesus proved that He was who He said He was, He is God.
Question 3: Do all religions lead to God?
Well now think about the logic of this. Can I go into a phone booth and dial any phone number and get home? No, there’s only one number that’ll get me home. I could be sincere, but I could be sincerely wrong. The truth is, all roads don’t lead to Rome and all roads and all religions don’t lead to God.
You see, it all depends on which direction you take. Jesus said this, “I am the way and the truth and the light. No one comes to the Father except through me.” I’m betting my life on the fact that He was right because I figured Jesus knows more about it than I did.
The Bible tells us that on the road to heaven, there are only two directions, toward Christ or away from Him. You can accept it or you can reject it, that’s your choice. You can make Jesus the Lord of your life, that means the manager, the ceo, the person in charge of your life, or you can call Him a liar, but that’s what the Bible declares.
You know a lot of people sincerely believe that even though they’ve broken God’s rules that they can earn God’s forgiveness by doing good works, by observing the Five Pillars of Islam or the Buddhist Eightfold Path or the Hindu Doctrine of Karma, for example. But I don’t get it. How will doing some good works that we should have done all our lives, make up for all the countless times we failed? You see, heaven is a perfect place and that means only perfect people get to go there. If not-perfect people were allowed in, it wouldn’t be perfect anymore. Well I don’t know about you, but I stopped being perfect a long time ago. So God came up with plan b. He came to earth in human form, Jesus Christ, and He lived a perfect life and now He offers to let us go to heaven on His ticket. And I pray that you will trust Jesus Christ and stop trying to bat a thousand because you ended up not doing that a long time ago and accept God’s free ticket through Jesus Christ.
Question 4: What’s going to happen to those people in the world who’ve never heard about Jesus Christ?
You may have heard this question put this way: “What about the person living in the jungle somewhere who’s never heard the good news about Jesus Christ? Are you christians saying that a person won’t go to heaven based solely on where he lives?” No, we’re not saying that. The Bible tells us that God doesn’t work that way. We understand that God is perfect in His love and perfect in His holiness and He’s perfectly just and fair. Therefore, it’s against God’s nature to be unfair. It’s against God’s nature to hide the ball on salvation or to condemn somebody who’s ignorant of his truth. In fact the scripture, the bible declares that God is loving and patient and not willing that anybody should perish. But He wants everybody to come to repentance, to come to know Him.
So if God is a perfectly loving and righteous God, then He will figure out ways to help people understand Him. He somehow reveals the simple truth of the gospel to people throughout the world. You know, I’ve talked to people who were missionaries in Africa who’ve told me that Jesus has revealed Himself through nature. When you look at nature you learn that God is organized, that God is creative, that God likes variety. But it’s when we look at Jesus Christ we realize that God is loving.
And as Christians we are called to tell the good news to other people. It’s God’s decision to decide what happens to people who haven’t heard about Him. But it is our decision to take that news to as many people as possible. And the bible says we will be held more responsible because we have heard and we have known that God is love, that God wants a relationship to us and that God will forgive us if we give our lives to Jesus Christ.
So, what do we do about those who haven’t heard? We tell them. First we accept God’s good news and then we tell them and we leave the result in the hands of a fair, loving and just God.
Question 5: What about all the wars that are caused in the name of Christianity?
Well first, let me say that a lot of things have been done in the name of Christianity that Jesus Christ would totally disavow. And just because someone claims to be a Christian doesn’t necessarily make him a follower of Christ, nor does it make him a representative of Jesus. It’s very, very important to distinguish between the bible kind of Christianity and the actions that have been taken throughout history by people who claim to be Christians but really didn’t know.
You see there’s a difference between religion and a relationship with God. Jesus is not interested in the religion of Christianity. He’s interested in you having a relationship to Him. Jesus never said, “I’ve come that you might have religion.” He said, “I came that you might have life and have it more abundantly.”
Now a lot of people have claimed to be followers of Christ but they’ve lived their lives contrary to His teaching. And we shouldn’t label that group Christian. But let me say this, have you ever seen a counterfeit dollar? Well, maybe you haven’t, but maybe you’ve heard of them. Why are there counterfeit dollars in the world? Well, I’ll tell you why. Because there are real dollars in the world. If there were no real dollars, there would be no counterfeits. And if you find counterfeit Christianity in the world, it must mean that somewhere there must be the real thing. The point is we don’t identify Jesus by claiming that all the things that were done in His name were done by Him. In fact, Jesus proffended His own disciples from defending themselves against the enemies when He said on a personal basis, He said, “I want you to turn the other cheek.”
So a lot of wars have been done in the name of Christianity that Jesus probably would have disavowed. The real issue is do you know Jesus Christ? You see, it doesn’t matter so much what has been done by hypocrites or phonies or false followers of Christ. What matters is do you know the real, true, genuine item? Have you ever turned your life over to Jesus Christ? If you haven’t, I would encourage you to investigate Him today.
Question 6: Is there any real right or wrong?
You know, you might have heard somebody say, “I don’t believe there’s such a thing as right or wrong.” Or maybe you’ve heard a professor say, “There are no absolutes.” Whenever I hear that I want to say, “Are you absolutely sure?” You have to ask yourself, “Is this statement even logical? Is there any right or wrong?” Because when people say, “There is no right or wrong, or it’s wrong for you to impose your morals on me,” think about it, by them telling you that, they are imposing their morals on you.
The fact is we all inheritantly know right from wrong and we just have this weird tendency to disregard it. To disregard morality when it conflicts with our desires for pleasure or personal gain. Now, sure, you might justify having an affair, but certainly you wouldn’t condone your spouse having one. Or you might justify taking something without permission, but if you were the one being robbed you wouldn’t think it was okay. You see the fact is, there isn’t a person alive today who’d come home from work and discover that their entire house had been robbed and say, “Oh, how wonderful that this burglar is able to enjoy all my things without my permission. And who am I to impose my view of right or wrong on this poor burglar?” You see how ridiculous that is? Of course.
Even those who claim there is no right or wrong have their own moral conscious, they’ve just set their own standards. Here’s a good way to determine right from wrong. Turn the situation around on yourself. Jesus said it best. He said, “Treat people the same way you want people to treat you.” You see we all know that murder and rape and lying and stealing and torture and injustice are absolutely wrong. Why? Because we wouldn’t want any of these things to happen to us. The person who would say, “there is no right or wrong,” would not agree that it was okay for them to be raped. No, when you turn it on yourself, you realize that even inside ourselves God has placed a moral conscious and that conscious tells us when we do right and when we do wrong. And when we violate our conscious, we need forgiveness. That’s why the bible said, “God sent Jesus to earth so that we might be forgiven of all of our wrong.”
Question 7: Why do I exist?
That’s the most fundamental question of life. What on earth am I here for?
Well, you need to understand God to answer that question. You see, the bible says, “God is love.” It doesn’t say He has love, it says He is love. It’s part of His nature, His character, it is the essence of His being. God is love. Now, love isn’t very valuable unless you bestow it on something and the bible says, “God made you to love you.” You were created as an object of God’s love. If you want to know why you’re taking breath right now, why your heart is beating, it’s because God made you to love you. It’s the sole reason. You were made to be loved by God and to bring Him pleasure.
Now God wants you to learn to love Him back and that’s the first purpose of your life, to get to know and love Him back. One day Jesus was walking down the street and a man came up and said, “What’s the most important command in the bible?” And Jesus said, “I’m going to summarize the entire bible in one sentence. Love God with all your heart and soul and mind and strength.” That’s called the great commandment. And God wants you to get to know and love Him back. So that means when you get up in the morning, you should sit on the side of your bed and say, “God, if I don’t get anything else done today, I want to know you a little bit better and I want to love you a little bit more.” Because if at the end of the day you know God more and you love Him more, you have just fulfilled one of the purposes of your life.
If, on the other hand, you’ve accomplished all kinds of things and achieved many, many successes in life, but at the end of the day you don’t know God better or love Him more, you have missed the primary purpose of your life. Because God didn’t put you on this earth just to mark things off your to-do list. He put you here to know Him and love Him. That’s why you exist.
Question 8: What is my purpose in life?
Well the truth is, God created you for five purposes. You see, you were made by God and you were made for God. And until you understand that, life isn’t going to make sense. When you come to this question, what is my purpose, you only have three alternatives.
- First is what I call the mystical approach, and that is look within. You find this in a lot of talk shows, a lot of new age books a lot of seminars. They say, “look within to discover your purpose.” The only problem is that doesn’t work. We’ve all looked within and I didn’t like what I saw. It’s quite confusing. In fact, if you could know the purpose of your life by looking within, we’d all know it by now. It doesn’t work.
- The second way you can try to discover your purpose is called the intellectual or philosophical approach. And that’s where you go to a seminary class or university class and you sit there with a pipe and your latte and your coffee and you ask questions like, “Why am I here? Where did I come from? Where am I going?” I once read a book by professor John Morehead, the Head of the Department of Philosophy at Northeastern University in Illinois. And he wrote to 250 well-known intellectuals and asked them, “What is the meaning and purpose of life?” These were novelists, scientists, well-known intellectuals, and I read the book, it’s now out of print, it was quite depressing because most of the people said, “I have no idea what the purpose of life is.” Some of them admitted they just made up a purpose. And some of the admitted they guessed. And some of them said, “If you know the purpose, please tell me.”
- You see, there’s a better answer to speculation and that’s revelation. If I were to hold up an invention that you have never seen before, you wouldn’t know its purpose. The only way you’d know its purpose was either talk to the inventor, the creator who made it or read the owner’s manual. The owner’s manual of life is the bible and your Creator is God. And it is only as you get to know God you will discover his five purposes for your life. I hope you’ll begin that journey today.
Question 9: Does my life really matter?
Well, it’s a good question. You know, today we teach our kids that we’re all just one big cosmic accident. We came from the goo through the zoo to you over billions of years. Well, if that is true, in a nutshell it teaches that your life really doesn’t matter, you’re just the freak accident of random chance, you’re complex slime and you were an accident. And if you get accidentally killed, well, of course, that doesn’t matter. And that creates a lot of our sociological problems and a lot of our self-esteem issues.
But the truth is you are not an accident. You were created by a loving God who loves you and designed you with intricate detail in your life and when you understand that God made you to love you and that God made you to be a part of His family and that God made you to last forever, then you’re never going to have a problem with low self-esteem again.
It was Bertram Russell the atheist who once said, “Unless you assume the existence of God, then the purpose and meaning of life is irrelevant.” The truth is, if there is no God your life doesn’t matter. But because there is a God, God had a specific purpose in mind when He created you and you do matter. You matter because God created you. You matter because he sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to die on the cross. If you want to know how much you matter, think of Jesus Christ with his arms outstretched saying, “I love you this much.”
Now, if you had to chose between a loved one and a material thing, even if that thing was priceless, you’d chose your loved one in a heartbeat. And when you’re on your deathbed, you’re not going to surround yourself with material possessions, you’re not going to say, “Bring me my trophies. Bring me my credentials. Bring me my certificates so I can look one more time at my grade point average.” No, you’re going to surround yourself with loved ones and everybody’s going to be crying because they’re going to miss you. You see, that’s how much you matter.
Personal relationships to God and to other people are the most important thing in life. And God wants you to know Him and He wants you to have a relationship with Him because you’re worth so much in God’s eyes that he sent His Son to die for you. I hope you’ll get to know Him very soon.
Question 10: Is there a real hell and why would a loving God send anyone there?
Well, first I believe in hell because Jesus talked about it. In fact, Jesus talked more about hell then He did heaven. He said it is a real place and it is a place of eternal torment. And I believe Jesus knows more about it than either you or I.
But second, I believe in hell because logic and fairness demand it. Think of all the atrocities and evil that have been done throughout history by evildoers in this world. For God to allow those crimes to go unpunished would mean that God is not worthy of our worship and love.
Now why would a loving God send anyone to hell? Well in a nutshell, God doesn’t. God doesn’t send anybody to hell. We choose to go there when we reject the love of God. If I were to say to my right is a door heading to heaven, and to my left is a door heading to hell, if you walk out the door heading to hell, you don’t have anybody to blame but yourself.
In fact, the bible tells us that God does almost everything – well everything possible to keep us out of hell. He cared so much to keep us out of hell that he sent Jesus Christ to come to earth, to die on the cross, to pay for our sins so that we don’t have to pay for them. He wants to set us free. He wants to give us forgiveness. God made us in his image and He gave us the ultimate power to say yes or no.
Now if we chose to reject God here on earth, then we, at the same time, are choosing to spend eternity separated from Him. You see, there are only two people in the world – two kinds of people. Those who say, “Thy will be done here to God on earth” and those to whom God says, “Your will be done,” when we say, “I want to do it my way.” And if we say, “God I don’t want you in my life while I’m here on earth,” then God says, “I don’t want you in my heaven for eternity.”
You don’t have to go to hell. In fact, Jesus Christ has made it possible for you to go to heaven. Open your heart to Him and say, “Jesus Christ, I need you, I want you, I trust you and I ask you to forgive me.” And He’ll come in and save you.
You can begin your journey today! Learn more about how you can discover purpose in your life.
If you have a question that wasn’t asked in this list,
You are not alone FreeWilly in struggling to understand the tension between the sovereign will of God and the responsibility of humanity’s free will. Theologians have wrestled with how those two can be true at the same time. I think it is crucial in important issues like this to focus our attention on what God has said to us in the Bible, after all, “All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true” (2Timothy 3:16) so God must have given us all we need to understand this as best as we can.
So to start off God says, “For I am God– I alone! I am God, and there is no one else like me. Only I can tell you what is going to happen even before it happens. Everything I plan will come to pass,” (Isaiah 45:9-10) So to answer your questions; yes, God does know everything before it happens, and yes, He does have a plan and the power to carry out that plan perfectly. Now if He was a cruel god that could be a very scary thing but as Moses testifies, “He is the Rock; his work is perfect. Everything he does is just and fair. He is a faithful God who does no wrong; how just and upright he is!” (Deuteronomy 31:30) That gives me great confidence because I know that His plan for my life is going to play out just as He intends it to and I know that His plan is perfect.
But God doesn’t just leave it there, because as you point out, why not just throw your hands up in fatalistic defeat because God is going to do what He is going to do so I should just sit back and wait for it to play out. God is clear in His gift of free choice to humanity. The Bible is full of stories of people choosing to either follow God or follow their own way and God holds them all responsible for their choices. Right from the beginning His instructions to our father Adam was “And the LORD God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die.” (Genesis 2:16-17)Moses makes that clear to the descendants of Israel when he encourages them, “Now choose life, so that you and your children may live and that you may love the LORD your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the LORD is your life” (Deuteronomy 30:19) We see men and women choosing well and being blessed by God, while others choose unwisely and are held responsible for their choices.
So somehow, God is able to exercise His sovereign plan without impinging on humanity’s freedom to choose. Some have tried to explain this by suggesting that God in His foreknowledge knew how people would choose so He set His plan accordingly. I think that might diminish the perfection of God’s plan so I am not altogether comfortable with that. Others have demised God’s knowledge of the future to say that God knows the infinite possibilities of our choices but doesn’t know exactly what we are going to choose; as we choose He then reacts with a perfect plan. That is in contradiction to how God speaks about His omniscience (perfect knowledge of past, present and future) so we must reject that explanation as well. I don’t think our finite minds can explain the tension between these two truths because God is so much greater than we can comprehend. Therefore, if we want to remain faithful to what is true we need to accept the God-inspired words in the Bible and acknowledge that God is sovereign and has a perfect plan that allows for us humans to choose freely and be held responsible for those choices.
How do you feel about that FreeWilly? Does that fit what you have been thinking?
@Freewilly: i think you have answered your question without even knowing. Yes God is all powerful, all knowing and he gives us the ability to choose. An example is God desires that we all be saved thats why he sent his son but yet we are not all saved because he wants us to make the decision for ourselves. Secondly like you said Jesus foresaw that Peter would deny him and he told it to Peter. He did not force Peter to deny him peter did out of fear. Its like a football match where i come and predict that chelsea will win man u now will chelsea win because i said they will or because they played well. God knows the end from the beginning but he can only tell you, what you now do with what he tells you is your choice. He cannot force himself on you because if he could we all would be saved. I pray this helps you.
My big problem here stems from the idea that God gave people free will. Didn’t Jesus predict that Peter (Frankly, I don’t know if that is the right name and don’t really care) would deny him three times before a rooster cawed and was right? If Jesus can see what people will do shouldn’t God be able to? Next, if God is all powerful, wouldn’t he have the power to see the future? From my perspective, if God doesn’t know what we are going to do, then God isn’t all powerful. Also, what about that age-old saying, “it’s God’s Plan”, if God has a plan for everyone, then are we able to alter from the plan. If we can’t, then what free will do we have? Not trying to start an internet fight, just really curious about the whole idea of free-will and what not. Thanks! :)
Hi Philip, I am so sorry for all of your losses. They become all the more difficult to respond to when they get stacked like that.
I want you to know that God does love you. I know that can be hard to believe given all that has happened to you but I can say it with confidence because I know Him. He never lies, He never misleads and He never recants. When Jesus says, “God so loved the world” you can know that it is true and it includes you.
I also want you to know that God has created you for a purpose. He has a plan for you that is far greater than you could ever imagine. A great reminder for me is, “For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do” (Ephesians 2:10) That verse is talking about you!
My encouragement to you is to look to God. He will explain to you why you exist. He will direct you towards that good works that He has prepared in advance for you to do. He will show His love to you. Let me invite you to talk to one of our online mentors and they can help you discover God speaking in your life. If you fill out the Mentor Request Form at http://powertochange.com/discover/talk-to-a-mentor one of our mentors will send you an email.
Lord God I pray for Philip right now and ask that You would help him to see how You love him. Open his eyes so that he can recognize the way that You are leading him to accomplish the plan that You have for his life. I pray that You would comfort him as he grieves so many losses in life. Bring people around him who will show You love to him. In Jesus’ name I pray, amen.
I was very glad I found this website!I am a 39 year old male about to turn 40 in 4 days and I am totally questioning my existence in life?First off I use to be a strong willed person that really never showed the emotion of sadness,Except of course at a funeral of a loved one.But June of 2011 my Mom was diagnosed with a terminal illness and passed away 6 weeks after being diagnosed.So while dealing with my Moms death I also had to deal with clearing out all of her belongings from the house I grew up in cause we lost the house because of financial reasons.So then I had to find a place to live and while I am going through all these things the love of my life decides to dump me,For reasons only known by her.So now I am without my Mom and still mourning losing her, living somewhere that does not feel like a home and having that lonely feeling every night I get home from work and every morning I wake!I really do need some solid answers as to why do even want to exist when all I feel is emptiness and no purpose in life for me????
All sins can be forgiven, except one, rejecting forgiveness. If you accept the forgiveness of Christ you will be saved for the Kingdom. It’s that simple. He made it this way to save as many of his children as possible, but there will still be multitudes who will not be saved as when the Holy Spirit offers his forgiveness they spat in his face and call themselves perfect. Don’t be one of them. Be humble and you will be with us for everlasting life.
good article and good comments too thank you for posting it
Jesus Christ Is Lord! Always was And Always will be! Jesus will never let You down ever.
my brothers and sisters in Christ, Never give up on Him.
He never gives up on you. God Is Good!!! And He Loves each and everyone of you
keep on spreading God’s Holy Word!!! Come on all You nations let’s be one Nation Under God!!!
Yoly I would challenge you to actually research some of the statements that you have made here. I think you would be very surprised by the answers. Check out this article, Are You a Truth Seeker.
Take the time to check out this series of articles which are also very powerful, Did Jesus Rise from the Dead?
Where do I start…… the Jesus question:
He is who he says He was
He was the biggest liar in history or
He was crazy, He was a lunatic on the order of the man who calls himself a fried egg.
If you think these are the only options, you really need to get out more, as in read, put down your bible and expand your mind and awareness….
Let me give you a few other possibilities:
4. He was a peace loving radical (ala Ghandi) who was misunderstood and the authors who recorded his teachings etc got a lot of what he meant wrong. Remember, we have NO first hand accounts of his teachings or speeches. The earliest gospel we have was written about 100 years after he died. Lots of time for getting his ideas wrong. Those who recorded Jesus words were very superstitious and unsophisticated folks (99% illiterate). Maybe Jesus was trying to get people to simply practice peaceful resistance toward the Roman Empire (again like Ghandi) but the bias of the times and the superstitious nature of the “listeners” caused a great amount of mistakes in understanding etc.
5. Perhaps Jesus was purposefully misinterpreted by individuals attempting to gain some power or project their agenda….?
6. Perhaps Jesus really never lived? There is only one other reference to Jesus in any other Historical writing of the time (Josephus – mentions a teacher or prophet…..) But remember, there were many profits and there was a vibrant mythology and narrative regarding a Messiah and thus the people were biased and prepped for this sort of fairy tale fulfillment.
7. He was an alien? You claim he walked on water – why is this so much crazier since an alien visiting earth would not necessarily violate physics as your messiah must.
Bottom line, we have no idea if the man even existed and lost of reasons to believe that the whole story is a bit of a fabrication (read some history and check your brain washing!!)
Well Jude that is a very straight forward question but I am guessing that there is a lot more in your mind and heart that is unspoken. So I want to be careful in my answer and ask that you read through to the end of it.
God is clear in the Bible that the act of homosexuality goes against God’s plan for humanity. In both the Old Testament and the New Testament homosexual acts are condemned as sinful (i.e. not O.K. in the eyes of God). In Genesis 19:7 the intention of the men of Sodom to have sex with what they thought were two male visitors in Lot’s house was called a wicked thing. In a couple of places in Leviticus homosexuality is condemned as a detestable thing (Leviticus 18:22, 20:13). In Judges 19:23 men having sex with men is called wicked. In the books of the Kings there are a number of references to the removal of wicked practices in the land of Israel and one of those was the removal of male prostitutes (1Kings 14:24, 15:12, 2Kings 23:7). In Romans both male and female homosexual acts are described as the result of people’s rejection of God (Romans 1:26-27). In 1Corinthians 6:9-11 homosexuality is included in a list of things that separate people from the Kingdom of God. In 1Timothy 1:8-10 Paul writes that the law was given to people living apart from God including homosexuals. Those are the verses that refer directly to the act of homosexuality as a perversion from what God originally intended.
But the act of homosexuality is no worse than any other act of attitude that is contrary to God. In 1Corinthians 6:9-11 the list of those who are far from God includes greedy people, and drunks, and liars. Whether people were born with those traits (who ever has to teach a child to want something that someone else has or to tell a lie) or they chose to follow in the footsteps of someone else, they still are all separated from God and are destined to condemnation if they refuse to receive forgiveness from Jesus Christ.
You see, Jesus is the one who saves us from all the sins that are in our lives that separate us from God. And that includes homosexuals. “What this means is that those who become Christians become new persons. They are not the same anymore, for the old life is gone. A new life has begun!” (2Corinthians 5:17)
So Jesus (and His followers as well) don’t treat homosexuals any different from anyone else. “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8) That includes us all, even homosexuals. God loves gay people so much that He sent Jesus to save them from their sin.
Does that answer your question Jude? Are you asking because you are gay or is there another reason?
Hi. My main question at this point is simply: is it O.K in the eyes of God to be ‘gay’?
Kersi I am so sorry for your loss. I have a friend whose 15 year old son was killed by a car and so I have a small idea of some of the pain that your family is going through. I don’t know you or your son but I do know God so let me pass on the hope that God gives to families that are grieving. First of all God is love. In a number of places in the Bible God is described as abounding in love and is forgives our sin and rebellion. God’s love has gone to the extreme lengths of allowing His own Son, Jesus Christ, to be killed so that His perfection can replace our imperfections. It is God’s desire that we all become His children and offers His forgiveness for all who accept it. For those who believe and receive the gift of Jesus’ perfection into their lives, God has adopted them into His family which means they will live through all eternity with Him in heaven. That is a promise that you can absolutely count on. And you can have confidence that God has given your son every opportunity to know Jesus and to receive His perfection into his life, even at such a young age. It may have been through a friend, a TV show, a word written in a book or even an angel that came and shared the Good News of Jesus with him. God has always known your son and has focused His unlimited attention on him right from day 1.
You too have the opportunity to become a child of God and receive the promise of living with God forever in heaven. That will be the place where you would be reunited with your son. Together you would be able to thank God for His wonderful love and celebrate with all the rest of God’s children.
As I said, I don’t know your son and whether he accepted Jesus gift of love into his life, but you can know for sure if you have. God promises in the Bible that all of that has been written so that you can know for sure that you have received life through Jesus. You don’t have to have a question at all in your mind if it is real.
I know that while the message of life in heaven is a tremendous hope there is still sadness today at the absence of your son. I know that my grandpa and grandma are in heaven with Jesus but I still miss them here on Earth. I look forward to the day when I will join them there but it doesn’t take away the loss of having them in my life now. But when I get together with my family we still remember together the ways that they loved us. I often think about the way that they invested themselves into my life and those memories help me to appreciate them. I am sure that your memories are even more powerful as a parent and the grief you feel deeper than mine. Let me encourage you to talk with your family about their memories. Even though those memories come with pain, they also have a healing effect as you remember the blessings of your son. Talk to God about your memories and your pain. He is a great comfort and can handle hearing your anger as well.
I have been involved in a couple of GriefShare groups, grief support groups that help those of us going through loss to better understand our grief. I highly recommend that you see if one is in your area and get involved. They have a group locator on their webpage http://www.griefshare.org. The groups combine some excellent video teaching on grief with time for people to support one another in the pain of loss.
You can also connect with one of our online mentors who will listen to your hurt and help you find ways of coping with your loss. You will find a Mentor Request Form at http://powertochange.com/discover/talk-to-a-mentor.
Let me pray for you: Heavenly Father I pray for Kersi and her family who are mourning the tragic loss of her son. I pray Lord that You would bring comfort into their lives through the discovery of Your love for them. Help them to find people who can help them to move through their grief and find their strength in You. I pray that while he was alive that her son had responded to Your invitation to receive Your forgiveness and that he now dwells with you in heaven, forever secure and at peace. I pray for a day when the whole family will be reunited in heaven and together they sing out a song of thanksgiving to You for Your great love. in Jesus’ name, amen.
Can the dead return in our lives again? My 11yr son who has died recently in a tragic road accident has left us in immense sorrow and pain. Can I hope to see him reborn in the family?
That is a really hard place to be isn’t it Shanice?! It is like your life is completely out of your control because you are at the mercy of circumstances and the choices of other people. I think that is a common theme for many people: they want their lives to mean something and to progress toward something better but they feel powerless to make that happen.
So what would you say would make your life meaningful? You want to leave your hometown; why? What are you ambitions?
I thank you so much for putting this up here. Iam so confused with things in my life, and 2011 was not a good year for me at all. I cant keep a job without someone trying to get me fired, ive tried my own businesses, ive always wanted to leave my hometown but so many things has come in the way, i am so stressed trying to figure what am i supposed to be doing and what is my purpose in life, I am 23 a single mother, i am very ambitious, but some days i cry and feel like giving up. i went to school and accomplished many things, but the only word i can describe my life as right now is STUCK!!.
Ahmed, it is good that you can recognize how you lose control of your anger. It will make it much easier to make changes. There a study on one of our sites that can help you look more closely at your anger to better understand what causes it. You will also have the chance of connecting with a mentor who can help listen to your struggles and suggest some possible next steps. The site is http://powertochange.com/studies/angry-outbursts.
There are parts of my life that I don’t like either. They can get in the way of healthy relationships and make me feel pretty bad about myself. I try to hide this dark side of me but I know that other people see it and it impacts the way they look at me. The only thing that has made a difference in my battle with this dark side is Jesus Christ. He takes my life and transforms it into something brand new. “What this means is that those who become followers of Jesus become new persons. They are not the same anymore, for the old life is gone. A new life has begun!” (a quote from the Bible at 2Corinthians 5:17) I know that Jesus can help you as well with your anger. He will set you free from the way it controls you and put His love in your heart so that you will no longer feel that anger towards people. To find out more about how you can become a follower of Jesus have a look at this website http://powertochange.com/discover/faith/discoverpurpose.
why i find my self have dark side of anger and nice side of peace when i get anger i be like beast i cant foucse about who my enemy and who my friend and people take this weakly point on me to make me frustred what should i do i feel all my proplems behind it 1 person what should i do and i know too have love make your dark side gone