Friday, August 5, 2016

Questions of life

Why every way can't reach to heaven or everything around us living or non-living can be God?

People quote some of the scriptures to say that we are Gods.

Genesis 1:26 NIV
Then God said, "Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground."

James 3:9 NIV
With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse human beings, who have been made in God's likeness.

Acts 17:28 NIV
For in him we live and move and have our being.' As some of your own poets have said, 'We are his offspring.'

1 Corinthians 6:19 NIV
Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own;


the other argument that people make is that, "Since God is omnipresent, he has to be there everywhere, So there is not a place where he is not." hence we should worship everything.

But the very fact that he created everything that has breath in it is to worship him and not the created things. Having said that, One of the commandments that God states is that, "Exodus 20:4 NIV
"You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below.
There is no denial of the fact that God is everywhere - Omnipresent - David says:
Psalm 139:7-8 (NASB)

7 Where can I go from Your Spirit?
Or where can I flee from Your presence?
8 If I ascend to heaven, You are there;
If I make my bed in [a]Sheol, behold, You are there.

but at the same time, God is holy and one. He does not dwell in temples made with hands; as Paul says in Acts 17 to the Athens and his sermon on the mars hill.

Acts 17:16-34New American Standard Bible (NASB)

Paul at Athens

16 Now while Paul was waiting for them at Athens, his spirit was being provoked within him as he was observing the city full of idols. 17 So he was reasoning in the synagogue with the Jews and the God-fearingGentiles, and in the market place every day with those who happened to be present. 18 And also some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers were [a]conversing with him. Some were saying, “What would this [b]idle babbler wish to say?” Others, “He seems to be a proclaimer of strange deities,”—because he was preaching Jesus and the resurrection. 19 And they took him and brought him [c]to the [d]Areopagus, saying, “May we know what this new teaching is [e]which you are proclaiming? 20 For you are bringing some strange things to our ears; so we want to know what these things mean.” 21 (Now all the Athenians and the strangers visiting there used to spend their time in nothing other than telling or hearing something new.)

Sermon on Mars Hill

22 So Paul stood in the midst of the [f]Areopagus and said, “Men ofAthens, I observe that you are very religious in all respects. 23 For while I was passing through and examining the objects of your worship, I also found an altar with this inscription, ‘TO AN UNKNOWN GOD.’ Therefore what you worship in ignorance, this I proclaim to you. 24 The God who made the world and all things in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands; 25 nor is He served by human hands, as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all people life and breath and all things; 26 and He made from one manevery nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, havingdetermined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation,27 that they would seek God, if perhaps they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; 28 for in Him we live and move and [g]exist, as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we also are His children.’ 29 Being then the children of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and thought of man. 30 Therefore having overlookedthe times of ignorance, God is now declaring to men that all peopleeverywhere should repent, 31 because He has fixed a day in which He will judge [h]the world in righteousness [i]through a Man whom He hasappointed, having furnished proof to all men [j]by raising Him from the dead.”
David again says in Psalm 115 about Idols: What they can do and what they can't, what happens to those who follow them.

Psalm 115New American Standard Bible (NASB)

Heathen Idols Contrasted with the Lord.

115 Not to us, O Lord, not to us,
But to Your name give glory
Because of Your lovingkindness, because of Your [a]truth.
2 Why should the nations say,
“Where, now, is their God?”
3 But our God is in the heavens;
He does whatever He pleases.
4 Their idols are silver and gold,
The work of man’s hands.
5 They have mouths, but they cannot speak;
They have eyes, but they cannot see;
6 They have ears, but they cannot hear;
They have noses, but they cannot smell;
7 [b]They have hands, but they cannot feel;
[c]They have feet, but they cannot walk;
They cannot make a sound with their throat.
8 Those who make them [d]will become like them,
Everyone who trusts in them.
9 O Israel, trust in the Lord;
He is their help and their shield.
10 O house of Aaron, trust in the Lord;
He is their help and their shield.
11 You who [e]fear the Lord, trust in the Lord;
He is their help and their shield.
12 The Lord has been mindful of us; He will bless us;
He will bless the house of Israel;
He will bless the house of Aaron.
13 He will bless those who [f]fear the Lord,
The small together with the great.
14 May the Lord give you increase,
You and your children.
15 May you be blessed of the Lord,
Maker of heaven and earth.
16 The heavens are the heavens of the Lord,
But the earth He has given to the sons of men.
17 The dead do not praise [g]the Lord,
Nor do any who go down into silence;
18 But as for us, we will bless [h]the Lord
From this time forth and forever.
[i]Praise [j]the Lord!



Thursday, August 4, 2016

Life Lessons - Jesus Heals a Man Born Blind


Jesus Heals a Man Born Blind

9 As he passed by, he saw a man blind from birth. 2 And his disciples asked him, c“Rabbi, dwho sinned, ethis man or fhis parents, that he was born blind?” 3 Jesus answered, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but gthat the works of God might be displayed in him. 4 We must hwork the works of him who sent me iwhile it is day; night is coming, when no one can work. 5 As long as I am in the world, jI am the light of the world.” 6 Having said these things, khe spit on the ground and made mud with the saliva. lThen he anointed the man's eyes with the mud 7 and said to him, “Go, wash in mthe pool of Siloam” (which means Sent). So he went and washed and ncame back seeing.
8 The neighbors and those who had seen him before as a beggar were saying, o“Is this not the man who used to sit and beg?” 9 Some said, “It is he.” Others said, “No, but he is like him.” He kept saying, “I am the man.” 10 So they said to him, “Then how were your eyes opened?” 11 He answered, p“The man called Jesus made mud and anointed my eyes and said to me, ‘Go to Siloam and wash.’ So I went and washed and received my sight.” 12 They said to him, “Where is he?” He said, “I do not know.”
13 They brought to the Pharisees the man who had formerly been blind. 14 qNow it was a Sabbath day when Jesus made the mud and opened his eyes. 15 rSo the Pharisees again asked him how he had received his sight. And he said to them, “He put mud on my eyes, and I washed, and I see.” 16 Some of the Pharisees said, “This man is notsfrom God, tfor he does not keep the Sabbath.” But others said, u“How can a man who is a sinner do such signs?” And vthere was a division among them. 17 So they said again to the blind man, “What do you say about him, since he has opened your eyes?” He said, w“He is a prophet.”
18 xThe Jews1 did not believe that he had been blind and had received his sight, until they called the parents of the man who had received his sight 19 and asked them, “Is this your son, who you say was born blind? How then does he now see?” 20 His parents answered, “We know that this is our son and that he was born blind. 21 But how he now sees we do not know, nor do we know who opened his eyes. Ask him; he is of age. He will speak for himself.” 22 (His parents said these thingsybecause they feared the Jews, for zthe Jews had already agreed that if anyone should aconfess Jesus2 to be Christ, bhe was to be put out of the synagogue.) 23 Therefore his parents said, c“He is of age; ask him.”
24 So for the second time they called the man who had been blind and said to him, d“Give glory to God. We know that ethis man is a sinner.”25 He answered, “Whether he is a sinner I do not know. One thing I do know, that though I fwas blind, now I see.” 26 They said to him, “What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?” 27 He answered them, g“I have told you already, and you would not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you also want to become his disciples?” 28 And they reviled him, saying, “You are his disciple, but hwe are disciples of Moses.29 We know that God has spoken to Moses, but as for this man, iwe do not know where he comes from.” 30 The man answered, “Why, this is jan amazing thing! kYou do not know where he comes from, and yet he opened my eyes. 31 We know that lGod does not listen to sinners, but mif anyone is a worshiper of God and does his will, God listens to him.32 Never since the world began has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a man born blind. 33 nIf this man were not from God, he could do nothing.” 34 They answered him, o“You were born in utter sin, and would you teach us?” And they pcast him out.
35 Jesus heard that they had cast him out, and having found him he said, “Do you believe in qthe Son of Man?”3 36 He answered, r“And who is he, sir, that I may believe in him?” 37 Jesus said to him, “You have seen him, and sit is he who is speaking to you.” 38 He said, “Lord, I believe,” and he worshiped him. 39 Jesus said, t“For judgment I came into this world, uthat those who do not see may see, and vthose who see may become blind.” 40 Some of the Pharisees near him heard these things, and said to him, w“Are we also blind?” 41 Jesus said to them, “If you were blind, xyou would have no guilt;4 but now that you say, ‘We see,’ your guilt remains.


First:
The Disciples:
Questioned about how he became blind? His sins or his fathers?

Second
The neighbors: They questioned him how he could see now?

Third: 
The Pharisees: They questioned first about the healing and then who and why?

Fourth:
The Parents: They questioned about knowledge of their son? "Ask him, as he is of age."


Answers:
Jesus answers each question along with insights:

Day and Night, 
We are to work together.


Answer to the Pharisees:
Spiritually blindness is to be worried more than physical blindness.


Acts of the Apostles

Acts 1 English Standard Version The Promise of the Holy Spirit 1 In the first book, O Theophilus, I have dealt with all that Jesus began to ...