World Religions. Only in the Bible

 Jesus and the world religions.

Only in the Bible will you find an almighty God who loves you from His heart.

And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them. 1 Jn 4:16 NIV

The God in the Koran is Creator and Judge, but in the Islamic scriptures there is no Father God.

And do not set your heart on what you will eat or drink; do not worry about it. 
For the pagan world runs after all such things, and your Father knows that you need them. Lk 12:29–30 NIV

Only in the Bible will you find an almighty God who loves all people.

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. Jn 3:16 NIV

This is good, and pleases God our Saviour, 
who wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.
Only in the Bible will you find an almighty God who loves his enemies. 1 Tim 2:3–4 NIV

Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” And they divided up his clothes by casting lots. Lk 23:34 NIV

This is what Jesus prayed when he was hanging on the cross and dying.

For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! Rom  5:10 NIV

Only in the Bible do we find an eternal, almighty Father God who sacrifices his eternal Son to pay our debt so that we may have eternal heavenly life through repentance and faith.

For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Rom 6:23 NIV

New Heaven New Earth

For over a hundred years, the future of humanity and our planet has been a burning issue.
For the Bolsheviks in Russia, the coming glorious age of communism was the redemption of humanity.

During the Cold War, there was a terrible fear that nuclear war would destroy us all.
In our time, the Greens are desperately fighting to save the planet.

The devoutly religious Muslims believe in a Golden Age, Dar Es Salaam, ‘House of Peace.’ In this fulfilment of their hopes, Islam is supposed to rule the whole world.

In the ‘New Age’ movement, there is song of a wonderful new era.

This is the dawning of the Age of Aquarius

Harmony and understanding
Sympathy and trust abounding
No more falsehoods or derisions
Golden living dreams of visions
Mystic crystal revelation
And the mind's true liberation, Aquarius
Aquarius

Thoughts like these have been cropping up more and more frequently for over a hundred years, but as early as 150 years ago, the American poet Walt Whitman wrote a beautiful poem.

I DREAM'D in a dream I saw a city invincible to the attacks of the
         whole of the rest of the earth,
I dream'd that was the new city of Friends,
Nothing was greater there than the quality of robust love, it led the rest,
It was seen every hour in the actions of the men of that city,
And in all their looks and words.

Where do these far-reaching thoughts come from, which emerge from the depths of our hearts?
 
King Solomon reflected at length on the deep questions of life. He wrote of God:

He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end. Ec 3:11 NIV

God did not create us as mere biological machines, as Karl Marx and other 19th- and 20th-century philosophers taught.

In our time, we recognise the emptiness in our hearts to which these lifeless philosophies have led.
About a hundred years ago, German poets sensed the deep loneliness of a life without a relationship with a loving Heavenly Father.

Strange to walk in the fog!
Life is loneliness.
No man knows the other, everyone is alone. (Herman Hesse 1905)

But 2000 years ago, the Son of God came into this world to reconcile us with our dear Father God.

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Jn 3:16–17 NIV

Jesus wants to give you a new life with the good Father God.
Why?

And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them. 1 Jn 4:16 NIV

But God's plans are even more far-reaching.

God wants to save this planet and restore everything, and he will do so irresistibly.

And I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. Rev 21,1 NIV

He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” Then he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.” Rev 21:5 NIV

Visualisation a Gift of God

 I will remember the deeds of the LORD; yes, I will remember your miracles of long ago.
I will consider all your works and meditate on all your mighty deeds.” Ps 77:11–12 NIV

The Jews in the Old Testament were to remember the wonders of God, not just in their own experience, but from ancient times.

How can you remember events without using your imagination? So the Jews were to visualise events from ancient times.

Many Christians reject visualisation because mystics in the New Age movement use visual imagination intensively and systematically.

But visual imagination does not come from New Age, it comes from God. According to the Bible.

“ ‘In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams. Acts 2:17 NIV

God created our visual imagination, and through visions and dreams He Himself communicates directly into our minds.

But God also encourages us to use our imagination consciously.

Jesus replied: “ ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ Mt 22:37 NIV

What does all your thinking consist of? Logic, language, arithmetic, planning, but also music, art, imagination, daydreams... etc.

Your whole thinking includes everything that can happen in your mind, everything.

Biblical Meditation

 New Age is an alternative religion. In New Age, feelings and experiences are emphasised. In New Age meditation the imagination and especially the visual imagination is encouraged and developed.

Christians must of course avoid false religions. This is particularly emphasised in the Bible.

“You shall have no other gods before me. Ex 20:3 NIV

God's people must not only reject other gods. In the Old Testament, the Jews were not allowed to imitate the worship practices and religious customs of other religions.

Many Christians therefore avoid all intense meditation because meditation is very prominent in Buddhism, Hinduism, Yoga and New Age.

But this causes problems because the Bible teaches us that we must not only read, learn and study the Bible, but that we must also meditate intensively.

Blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked or stand in the way that sinners take or sit in the company of mockers,

but whose delight is in the law of the LORD, and who meditates on his law day and night. Ps 1:1–2 NIV 

 What is the Hebrew word ‘hagah’?

to roar, growl, groan, to utter, speak. to meditate, devise, muse, imagine. (Strong's Lexicon)

What does this mean? Our relationship with God and his word involves all aspects of our thoughts and emotions, including our imagination.

So are we allowed to meditate and visualise?

In the Bible, God's truth is repeatedly presented with vivid visual illustrations.

For the mountains may depart and the hills be removed, but my steadfast love shall not depart from you, and my covenant of peace shall not be removed, says the LORD, who has compassion on you.

O afflicted one, storm-tossed, and not comforted, I am about to set your stones in antimony, and lay your foundations with sapphires.

I will make your pinnacles of rubies, your gates of jewels, and all your wall of precious stones. Is 54:10–12 NRSV

Should the Holy Spirit express himself in this way, but forbid us to think in this way?

New Age does not come from God, but from darkness. The devil cannot create anything. He copies everything from God, the Creator of all things.

He said to him, “ ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ Mt 22:37 NRSV

Your thought world includes maths, logic, memorising, music, making plans, etc, etc.

But your world of thoughts also includes memories, dreams, daydreams, musing, meditating and all kinds of imaginations, including visual ones.  

Dreams and daydreams can be sinful or sacred. We must not abolish our imagination, but sanctify it with the Holy Spirit through God's Word.

Knowing God Personally

 If we believe in Jesus, we are forgiven and saved from eternal death.

Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live,
and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?” Jn 11:25–26 ESV

What is this faith by which we are saved? Many are baptised as babies, but they do not know what has happened.

Some are baptised as adults, but there is no trace of brotherly love and mercy in their lives afterwards. Some become loving people, but others become merely religious and self-righteous.

‘everyone who lives and believes in me.’ Jesus speaks of an enduring life that is determined and characterised by faith.

Then Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, “If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples;
and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.” Jn 8:31–32 NRSV

What does ‘continue in my word’ mean?

You should read the Bible every day? A good idea, but is that what Jesus meant?
Keeping God's commandments? Also good. We must not disobey God's commandments.

Jesus taught the Bible very differently from the pious Jews of his time.

Jesus was one hundred per cent a Bible man, but he spoke of something different, of a living relationship with himself.

Jesus rebuked the pious Bible experts who listened to him.

“You search the scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that testify on my behalf.
Yet you refuse to come to me to have life. Jn 5:39–40 NRSV

What did Jesus mean when he told the Jews to remain in his word?

They should live as Jesus himself taught. It is not enough to agree with biblical truth. We must put Jesus' teachings into practice every day.

But how can we love our enemies? Not just be nice to difficult people, not just pray for the conversion of sinners, but really be touched by the love of God for evil people?

We must take the teachings of Jesus seriously, but that is not enough.

When Jesus called his disciples to follow him before the cross, it was both a command and an invitation to live in personal communion with him. Peter and Andrew had to leave their fishing boat behind. Matthew had to give up his business.

Back then, Jesus was a travelling preacher. Following him often meant travelling with him.

Even today, there are newly converted Christians who have to leave their job or their home, but many should stay where they are.

What does discipleship mean today?

For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. Rom 8:14 NRSV

We do not have visible fellowship with Jesus today, but we do have God's invitation to experience fellowship with his Spirit. The Holy Spirit is not a theological concept, but a loving person, a person who loves you like Jesus himself.

May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. 2 Cor 13:14 NIV

We can only live the way Jesus wants us to live if we allow ourselves to be changed inwardly by the love of God. Jesus sent his Holy Spirit to bring about this inner healing.

Bible Texts to Help You Pray

 Here are some Bible texts with short comments to help you pray.

Through the praise of children and infants you have established a stronghold against your enemies, to silence the foe and the avenger. Ps 8:2 NIV

God hears the prayers of young children and newly converted Christians. Are you not a hero of faith? No matter, let God hear the cry of your heart. He wants to help you and perhaps surprise you.

“Keep on asking, and you will receive what you ask for. Keep on seeking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened to you.

For everyone who asks, receives. Everyone who seeks, finds. And to everyone who knocks, the door will be opened. Mt 7:7–8 NLT

• Maybe you're praying and you're not getting an answer. Don't worry about it. God wants to hear you. Please don't give up.

• Seek more help.

• Seek more wisdom in the Bible so that you can pray better.

• Ask other Christians to pray with you.

• Ask God to give you intuitive insight into how to pray.

• Ask God to reveal to you if you are clinging to a sinful attitude so that your faith is blocked.

See how very much our Father loves us, for he calls us his children, and that is what we are! But the people who belong to this world don’t recognise that we are God’s children because they don’t know him. 1 Jn 3:1 NLT

Do you believe in Jesus? You must understand that God wants to bless you.

What then are we to say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us?
He who did not withhold his own Son, but gave him up for all of us, will he not with him also give us everything else? Rom 8:31–32 NRSV

There are some Christians who have a distorted image of God. They see themselves as wretched sinners who deserve nothing and therefore should not expect much from God.

When the prodigal son returned to his father in Luke 15, he asked for the grace to serve as a servant. How did the father respond?

“But the father said to his servants, ‘Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet.
Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate. Lk 15:22–23 NIV

Are you weak in faith? You know that nothing is impossible for God, but you doubt whether your weak faith is enough to get an answer.

He told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field.

Though it is the smallest of all seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds come and perch in its branches.” Mt 13:31–32 NIV

Start small and never give up. Your little faith can grow until you know God better and your faith becomes strong.

Take delight in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart. Ps 37:4 NIV

Last Minute Mercy for the Dying

 I know a faithful Christian woman who loved her nephew dearly, and she prayed for the rebellious teenager.

One day the woman was sick in bed and dreamt of a terrible dark cave. This was death itself.

In her dream, she heard a voice telling her that someone in her family was in mortal danger and she had to pray fervently. She prayed until she felt relieved.

It was only later that day that she heard how her beloved nephew had died in a car accident.

God answers prayers.

So many young and old people meet the Saviour in the last moment of their lives, meet God's Son who died on the cross for them and never wants to give up his saving mission for everyone.

Never give up. God is at work.

You may not be a hero of faith, but God can call others to stand by your loved ones with strong faith.

Do not give up. Your prayers are not in vain, either.

A friend of mine was a nurse. She told me about an old lady in the ward where she worked. This old lady was about 90 years old and had been at death's door for months.

She was also very lonely because she didn't speak any English. But she spoke good German.

I went to the chaplain and got permission to visit the old lady. I sat next to her bed and read German Bible texts to her. She listened attentively, and God helped me to make the way of faith clear.

During my last visit, she stared around her room. I thought she had dementia, but maybe she was seeing angels.

I read the following words:

Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live,
and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?” Jn 11:25–26 NRSV

I asked: ‘Do you believe this?’
She answered with an amazingly firm voice.
‘Yes, I believe!’

I didn't see her again, but I was at the funeral. Everyone was crying. They were not sure that the old woman was in heaven.

Who have you lost?
Maybe all is not lost. What can you do?
God hears even your weak prayers.

If you can't do anything yourself, God will answer your prayers.

‘Call to Me and I will answer you, and I will tell you great and mighty things, which you do not know.’ Jer 33:3 NASB95

Friendship with God

 The angels are perfect servants and we can never be perfect servants because we are not flawless here on earth. Nevertheless, God is looking for people like you and me. He wants to be your friend. You can become his friend too.

We all want to have good friends. Jesus is the best of all friends. He will always remain faithful to you. But God also wants to have good friends. .

I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. Jn 15:15 NIV

If you learn to trust Jesus deeply and intimately, he will share the secrets of his heart with you.

As faithful Jews, the disciples had learnt a lot about God. They knew Bible texts by heart. Some of them were already disciples of John the Baptist before they met Jesus.

Then they met Jesus. From that moment on, everything centred around Jesus.

I write blogs in German, even though my first language is English. God has commissioned me to do missionary work among German speakers. I am not flawless in German, but I have learnt German well.

How can you learn a foreign language really well? Through concentration! You have to focus intensively on the new language.

How can you know God well? Spend time paying close attention to His word and His presence.

The disciples became Jesus' companions. They followed him.

But you can also have companions without experiencing a great friendship. You can be travelling on a tourist bus or a cruise ship. Your companions are often just acquaintances.

For many Christians, the church is like a bus or a ship. Jesus may theoretically be the captain, but who has an intimate friendship with the captain?

Jesus invited the disciples to be his personal companions.

• Imagine the captain on a cruise ship invited you to eat at his table every day.

• Imagine that the Queen of England has invited you to live in her palace and eat at her table three times a day.

• Imagine you are a keen musician. Johann Sebastian Bach or Paul McCartney wants to invite you to live in his family home and be his student.

You are a friend of God if you know what God is doing.

How can you know what God is doing?

Only if God himself reveals or explains it to you.

How can you be sure that you are actually hearing God's voice? When you seek God's presence with all your heart, when you understand the Bible as a personal message from God.

You are my friends if you do what I command. Jn 15:14 NIV

God speaks to you because He loves you and He wants to have an intimate relationship with you.

But God also wants to help you and enable you to live a heavenly life.

“Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Mt 11:28 NASB95

If you really know Jesus personally, you will experience peace with God, not as a theological doctrine, but from your own experience.

Only in the Bible is the God of Love

 Only in the Bible do you find an almighty God who loves you with all his heart.

And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them. 1 Jn 4:16 NIV

The God in the Koran is Creator and Judge, but there is no Father God in the Islamic scriptures.

Only in the Bible do you find an almighty God who loves all people.

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. Jn 3:16 NIV

This is good, and pleases God our Savior,
who wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. 1 Ti 2:3–4 NIV

Only in the Bible do you find an almighty God who loves his enemies.

Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” .. Lk 23:34 NIV

This is how Jesus prayed when he was hanging on the cross and dying.

For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! Ro 5:10 NIV

Only in the Bible do we find an eternal, almighty Father God who sacrifices his eternal Son to pay our debts so that we can have eternal heavenly life through repentance and faith.

For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Ro 6:23 NIV

Jesus and Other Religions

 God has given us the Bible. The Bible is God's map, a totally reliable revelation. In the Bible, we find everything we need to recognise God.

In the Bible, we read that God created everything.

In the Bible, we read that many people believe in a god or gods that are different from the God of the Bible, but they are false gods.

This idea is horrible and repulsive to post-modern tolerant people, but that is exactly what the Bible says.

Many religious people claim to believe in the Ten Commandments, but they don't understand what that really means. The first commandment excludes all the other world religions.

“You shall have no other gods before me. Ex 20:3 NIV

Buddhists do not believe in an almighty creator.
The Hindus believe in many gods.

“This is what the LORD says— Israel’s King and Redeemer, the LORD Almighty: I am the first and I am the last; apart from me there is no God. Is 44:6 NIV

Muslims also believe in an almighty God who created everything, controls everything and is supposed to be the judge of all people.

But is the God of the Muslims the same God? Is the God of Mohamed the God of Israel? The muftis and imams would find this idea repulsive.

But Jesus identified himself with the God of Israel.

But about the resurrection of the dead—have you not read what God said to you,
‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not the God of the dead but of the living.” Mt 22:31–32 NIV

Many post-modern people speak of the Abrahamic religions. The father of the Arabs was Ishmael, not Isaac and Jacob.

In our time, countless Muslims are converting to Jesus, but in the Bible the King of Israel, one hundred per cent Jew and Son of God, is not an Islamic prophet.   

Jesus said to him: ‘I am the way and the truth and the life; no one comes to the Father except through me. John 14:6

The Qur'an teaches that Jesus was a prophet of Allah, but not the son of God.

The God in the Qur'an is Creator and Judge, but there is no Father God in the Islamic scriptures.

In Islam, Allah is the ruler God and judge but not a father. He has no children. This is said to contradict his nature.

‘Believe in Allah and his Messenger (Muhammad), but say nothing of a trinity. There is only one God, far from him, that he has a son. Verily these are unbelievers who say: Allah is Christ, the son of Mary. Whoever joins someone to Allah, Allah excludes him from paradise, and his dwelling place will be hellfire’ (Suras 4, 172; 5, 73f.)

But the core of our Christian faith can be found in this wonderful statement by Jesus.

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life. Jn 3:16 NIV

Do you find this teaching too narrow-minded? But have you read the Bible yourself?

It is not wise to reject a book if you have not read it.

There are also people who think they believe in the Bible to some extent, but also in other religions to some extent.

But have you really read the Bible? I know Christians who were convinced Muslims until they read the Bible for themselves.

Jesus is Coming Back

There was a man sent from God whose name was John.
He came as a witness to testify about the light, so that all might believe through him.
He was not the light, but he came to testify about the light. Jn 1:6–8 CSB

We all know the story of John the Baptist in the Bible. He was a man sent by God. He proclaimed the message of salvation.

This message is still relevant. This world is shaking. We recognise that nothing is safe anymore. We need salvation from a better world.

Some are fascinated by fantasy films. There must be something out there.

And there really is something more, much more than we understand.

Religion has become dry and bland because the Bible has been reduced to a book of fairy tales or theology.

But people in the Bible really did see angels, and that still happens today.
Lazarus died and was in the grave for four days, and then Jesus came and raised him back to life.

An American preacher named Richard Sigmund was dead for 8 hours and came back. He told what he had experienced in heaven.

...I heard someone say, ‘He's been dead for hours.’
I sat up and replied: ‘I'm not dead yet.’
Someone from the medical staff screamed out loud. Another lost control of his bladder.
https://big-ideas-with-god.blogspot.com/2024/09/are-near-death-experiences-real.html

‘’But that can't be!

If it can't be, why are you wasting your time reading the Bible, where impossible miracles are presented as historical facts.

If God could perform seemingly impossible works in the Bible, why shouldn't he do the same today?

But perhaps you don't want to believe because it doesn't seem reasonable.

God is not at all impressed by our reasonable worldview.
Look around you. What kind of world has our reason created? Everything is shaking.

There was a man sent from God whose name was John.
He came as a witness to testify about the light, so that all might believe through him. John 1:6-7 CSB

There are people today who work miracles with the power of the Holy Spirit, like the apostles in the Bible. Like John, they declare that Jesus is coming, but this time not as a baby in a manger, but as the Lord from heaven.

But that is surely an old fairy tale. It can't be. We are modern and sensible now.

What kind of world has our modern rationality created?

How long can this planet continue to exist if Jesus does not come back?

Why are we here?

So many people consider themselves wise because they are sceptical. They believe in a scientifically confirmed reality.

The achievements of modern science and technology are truly amazing. 

We know so much now that was completely unknown a hundred or two hundred years ago.
But there are still many mysteries that the best scientists do not understand.

What is dark matter? There is a lot of matter in space that no instrument can identify, but scientists tell us that this invisible matter must be there because otherwise many gravitational phenomena are inexplicable.

We know that matter is made of atoms, that atoms are composed of protons, neutrons and electrons, and many other things that I don't understand because I'm not a scientist. 

We fly from Europe to Australia in 20 hours and use laptops on the plane.

The achievements of scientists have seduced us into thinking we are amazingly intelligent, even though we understand so little.

Educated scientists and technicians can explain a lot. They understand how things work, but when confronted with existential fears, we are in the dark. In the end, even scientists are only mortal human beings.

What happens when we die? Doctors can explain how our bodies shut down when we die, but what comes after that?

We imagine that we understand things that we don't understand at all, but we have a kind of religious faith in the supposed omniscience of scientists.

For many people, science is the new religion. Even if we don't understand this alleged reality, we trust our high priests, the scientists.

Why does anything exist at all? The best scientists have no better answers than toddlers.

Albert Einstein was led to believe in God through his studies. Without God, everything makes no sense.

But if we understand everything as God's creation, how can we explain the existence of evil?

How can God be good if he is the creator and allows so much evil? I can find the answer only in the Bible.

Have you read the Bible with an open heart? I find that the Bible is the only remedy that can save us from hopelessness.

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. Jn 3:16 NIV84

A Hearing Heart

King Solomon was humble in the beginning and wanted to please God. He asked God for wisdom so that he could rule justly.

But we need to look at the text more closely. What is the essence of this wisdom that Solomon received from God?

So give Your servant an understanding mind and a hearing heart to judge Your people, that I may discern between good and bad. For who is able to judge and rule this Your great people? 1 Kings 3:9 AMP

First, we need to listen to our own hearts when we feel pangs of conscience. We all experience these conflicts. Unfortunately, Adam and Eve ignored their conscience.

But it is not enough just to obey our conscience. Our conscience can be shaped by our upbringing, our culture and our religion.

Our conscience can be too liberal or too strict.

There are Christians who consider sex before marriage normal. I cannot understand why they do not feel painful remorse.

On the other hand, there are women who have had a very strict religious upbringing. They have learned to regard sexual feelings as sinful. When they are engaged and kiss their fiancé, they feel guilty. Even after they are married, they can’t enjoy sex.
 
If you have a listening heart, your heart will be open to God's word. You will learn from the Bible that sex before marriage is forbidden.

You will also learn that sex with your mate should be a great joy.

Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth! For your love is better than wine; Song of Solomon 1:2 ESV

There are laws in the Bible that are meant to sharpen our conscience. But there are also teachings that are meant to free us from a legalistic conscience.

Only through divine wisdom will your conscience be cleansed and sanctified but also freed from legalism.

For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery. Galatians 5:1 ESV

JESUS, MUSLIM PROPHET OR THE SAVIOUR OF THE WORLD?

God so loved the world...

Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God? 
This is he who came by water and blood—Jesus Christ; not by the water only but by the water and the blood. 
And the Spirit is the one who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth. 1 John 5:5-6 (ESV)

When the beloved Apostle John wrote these words, there were false teachers who declared that The Son of God did not really die on the cross.

The “Christ Spirit” came on Jesus when He was baptised in water and the same “Christ Spirit” departed back to heaven before the man Jesus was crucified and poured out his blood. So these false teachers said and they deceived many.

About 500 years later an Arabian religious leader named Mohammed came and taught the Arabs also to honour Jesus (Isa in Arabic). But Mohammed’s Isa is not the Jesus of the Bible.

The Muslim Isa was the son of Mariam and he was a great prophet and miracle healer. But Isa in the Koran was a man and not God. He did not die on the cross. Another man took his place before the execution.

• In Islam, Jesus did not die for your sins. Allah has no son. 

• Allah did not sacrifice his son to pay the penalty for your sins. 

  • Muslims are taught they must try to be good obedient Muslims in the hope that their good deeds might outweigh their sins. If not, they will burn in hell. 

• This terrible uncertainty is a thousand times worse than the Roman Catholic fear of a time of temporary punishment in Purgatory. 

• In Islam there is only one way to sure you are going to Paradise. You must shed your own blood for Islam.

Mohammed taught a Muslim martyr can go directly to paradise by shedding his own blood in holy battle against the infidels. 

• In the Palestinian territories in the Holy Land, Palestinian televison shows sexy girls calling teenage boys to become suicide bombers or terrorists. The reward is the assurance of a very carnal salvation, the instant transportation to Paradise where they can immediately lose their virginity with sexy girls and continue in the same manner for ever and ever.

But the Bible tells us that salvation comes not by pouring out your own blood but by believing in the Holy Son of God who poured out His blood on the cross to pay the penalty of your sins.

• If you believe and trust in the Son of God,

• if you are willing to receive the grace of God to transform your character,

• if you are willing to receive the supernatural eternal life that God gives as a free gift, 

  • you can not only be saved but you can be sure you are saved.

Jesus was born by water and blood. 

• As a natural human baby, he left his mother’s body with the flowing of water (amniotic fluid) and blood. As a Jewish baby boy he shed his own blood when he was circumcised and he was of course washed with water.
• As a young man he was baptised in the River Jordan and the Spirit of God came upon Him to empower Him for His supernatural ministry.

• As He prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane, His sweat came as water and then blood. 

• When He was whipped by Roman soldiers, the blood poured from His back.

• When they pushed a crown of thorns onto His head, the blood flowed again.

• When He gave up His spirit on the cross and died, a Roman solder thrust a spear into His side and out of the wound flowed water and blood, a sign of extreme torture and trauma.

All this is recorded in the Holy Bible, which was written under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit of God. 

Many Muslims have read the Bible and the Koran side by side and decided the Bible is not mistaken. 

They have been converted to Jesus Christ by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit of God who inspired the Jewish and Christian Scriptures but who did not inspire the Koran.

THE POWER OF WORDS

In the beginning God spoke, and it happened.
“Let there be light!” and the light appeared.

God speaks. It is in His eternal nature. He is not a silent God.
Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets... Heb 1:1 (ESV)
Then God sent His Son into the world to show us what He is like. When Jesus was born in Bethlehem, God became flesh and blood.
...but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. Heb 1:2 (ESV)
The eternal Father sent His eternal Son to represent Him on earth to act for Him.
So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise. Jn 5:19 (ESV)
And the Father also sent Jesus to speak for Him.
Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works. Jn 14:10 (ESV)  
We have a wonderful record of the words of Jesus in the Bible, which we rightly consider to the Word of God in book form. It is in the very nature of God to speak. He did not stop speaking when the Bible was published. The Spirit of Jesus who inspired the Bible also speaks through the Bible as we hear it and read it today.
The words of God give life.
“Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. Jn 5:25 (ESV)
When Jesus spoke to the lifeless body of Lazarus in the tomb, the stinking corpse stood up and Lazarus walked out alive. Even today, there are believing Christians who have spoken to dead bodies and they have returned to life.
Death is the great enemy of humankind, but there is an even more terrible curse upon us, spiritual death. If you don’t know Jesus personally, you are separated from God and as good as dead for ever and ever.
We can only be truly alive by receiving the words of Jesus and getting to know the eternal ONE whose words give life.
My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. Jn 10:27-28 (ESV)
How spiritually alive are you? This question is a good test.
Do you know what God is saying to you now? Do you frequently receive direct communication from the Spirit of Jesus?
In the time of Jesus, each sheep was in constant personal contact with the shepherd. Where the shepherd walked, the sheep followed. When the shepherd called, the sheep heard and responded.
This reminds me of a lovely song.
“I heard the Lord, call my name. Listen close you’ll hear the same. Take it and we are glory bound.”
But take care not to confuse the VOICE of God with the words of Christians who water down the truth.
The Bible says we are saved by grace and not by our works. That is true. But often the wonderful word GRACE is watered down. We think it means mercy, and it does mean mercy.
But grace means much more. The grace of God is also the creative power of God.

Jesus saved an adulterous woman from execution by stoning. Jesus stood up and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”
She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more.” Jn 8:10-11 (ESV)
This was not only mercy but powerful grace. The words of Jesus imparted inspiration and divine power to change her life.