Tag: Jesus Christ

Heaven is for Real

One of the conversations I’ve had with many well intentioned Christians is about their cherished belief of “going to heaven” when they die. Upon pressing them further about the details, they also assert that Jesus was fully conscious when he died and was in the grave for three days.

Sadly, they are terribly misinformed. This is not what the Bible teaches. My book Hope of the Resurrection contends that death is like sleep, and we challenge the authenticity of reported NDEs (Near Death Experiences) based simply on what Jesus taught.

Now a short video has emerged that sheds some much needed light on this subject. Can you guess which book is rated as the current best-seller in Christian bookstores?

Evangelical brothers

I’m struggling with the perspective by some that our evangelical brothers, including Phil Robertson (of Duck Dynasty fame), aren’t genuine followers of Jesus Christ. If that is the case, then are we not running the risk of replicating the work of the Pharisees – creating burdens and judgemental standards we’re not entitled to? For example, I’ve heard the assertion that “keeping certain laws under the alias of Biblical tradition”, for example, are used as a test of fellowship and a requirement for salvation. If that is the case, then we have perhaps failed to discern where and how God is working.

There are many brothers in the faith, across a spectrum of denominations, and like the demographics in the Churches of God, wheat and tares seem to equally exist across most if not all fellowships. We are all sinners. The “old man” still exists in degrees in all of us. We all fall short of God’s righteousness, but the bill has been paid in Jesus’ blood. We are responsible, of course, to what God has revealed to us.

Phil Robertson’s words and warning originate from his love for Jesus, his repentance and conversion, and clearly motivated by God’s Holy Spirit, exhibits a willingness to carry his cross in this evil world. Most of the prophets of old God sent to his people were either killed or chased out of town. Phil seems, today, to have also entered their ranks!

So let’s not be too harsh or judgemental towards our evangelical brothers. Their following of Jesus must never be brought into question.

johnklassek2014b

John Klassek

What was Jesus telling John?

Saying to the sixth angel which had the trumpet, Loose the four angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates. So the four angels, who had been prepared for the hour and day and month and year, were released to kill a third of mankind. Now the number of the army of the horsemen was two hundred million; I heard the number of them. And thus I saw the horses in the vision: those who sat on them had breastplates of fiery red, hyacinth blue, and sulphur yellow; and the heads of the horses were like the heads of lions; and out of their mouths came fire, smoke, and brimstone. By these three plagues a third of mankind was killed-by the fire and the smoke and the brimstone which came out of their mouths.

(Revelation 9:14-18 NKJV)

What was Jesus telling John in this vision? Is this a warning for our generation? Or is this simply an allegorical bit of mumbo-jumbo, safe to ignore and open to ridicule?

Might we be wise to heed Jesus on this one? Is this a prophetic picture of what is brewing near the Euphrates River today, ditto, Iran? Is the tension on the Korean peninsula part of this equation?

“Fire, smoke and brimstone” sounds like thermo-nuclear war, doesn’t it!

 

Gospel of John (WBS #3 MP3 streaming)

Hello there and welcome again to the Weekend Bible Study.

I hope you’ve had a good week. This morning I noticed that the old almond tree in our back yard has just sprouted its spring time blossoms – and it is absolutely beautiful. I can understand why the almond blossom was included in the floral designs carved into the ornaments of ancient Israel’s tabernacle.

Last week we worked through a few verses from the Gospel of John, and by this stage, I hope that we’re beginning to get a feel for what John is telling us. John is telling us about God, God in the flesh. “We have seen him and we have touched him,” says John in one of his epistles. That’s personal. That’s close. And very, very revealing.

John wants to tell his readers something very important. It is something that he knows and it’s something he understands. It’s something he has told verbally, since the death and resurrection of Jesus, possibly hundreds of times over the years. Anyone who reads the book of John, carefully, deliberately, word for word, with a heart to understand, will by the end of the book stand beside Jesus with shoes as big as John’s.

So, as we’re about to begin, if you like, grab a cuppa and a cookie, and we’ll continue our journey together through the Gospel of John.

Click here to listen or download MP3.

 

Rivers of Living Water

We visited Eadine Springs and Spencers Brook running through Clackline, not far from where we live in rural Western Australia. It was the ideal venue for a Sabbath picnic followed by a leisurely walk through the bush.

Leah held up her mobile phone and motioned that she was about to film, saying, “Go on!”

You can’t beat those spontaneous moments – they surely can’t be repeated!

(Apologies for the noise of the stream).