Monday 26 March 2012

BASIC QUESTION ABOUT LIFE


Life is often defined by the questions we ask. The questions we are asking often reveal what we are thinking – or the direction we are going.  Questions are the building blocks of comprehensive writing. The answers to the questions that we ask are what build our life story. When it comes to non-fiction writing – journalism in particular – there are 5 Ws which need to be answered in any given news story: Who, What, Where, When, Why. And then, sometimes, it is instructive to add an H – How.

People have long asked: what’s the origin of life? Where do we come from? Who am I? , Why am I here? , Is there a God? Where am I going? What can I do? Is there life after death?" What is the world made of? What holds it together?, what is truth? What is good and what is evil? What is moral code in relation to right and wrong? What is the meaning of life? What's our destiny? How do you find peace? When talking to people of all walks of life, we find that we differ most in opinion about the above questions but the Bible is the only reliable source that gives answers to all those questions.

Just as we as human beings ask questions about life, so the God who created and sustains all things asks questions. We have a choice, to start with the questions of God or with our questions.
God is the source and centre of all reality. There is no other alternate autonomous religious reality where we might meet him. We live and move and have all our being in his presence. The God who has called our life into being relates deeply with his creation. Everything that exists does so because God called it into being for his purposes. Hence the questions of the Bible are still the most important QUESTIONS? 

The Bible also teaches us things by asking questions. In fact, the Bible is filled with lots of important questions. In Exodus 5:2, the king of Egypt asked an important question when he said, “Who is God?” In John 18:38, a ruler by the name of Pilate once asked, “What is truth?” That is another important question. But one of the most important questions in the Bible is found in Acts 2:37. The people who had killed Jesus knew they had sinned. So, they asked Peter, “What shall we do?” They wanted to be saved from their sins

Let us glance through few important questions in the Bible that changed the course and destiny of mankind.

1. “Now the serpent (Satan) was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?” Genesis 3:1.
2. “But the LORD God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?” He said, “I heard the sound of You in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid myself.” And He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” Genesis 3:9-11.
3. Then the LORD said to Cain, “Where is your brother Abel?”  “I don’t know,” he replied.“Am I my brother’s keeper?” Genesis 4:9
4. “If a man dies, will he live again? All the days of my struggle I will wait Until my change   comes.  Job 14:14
5. Pilate said to them, “Then what shall I do with Jesus who is called Christ?” They all said, “Crucify Him!”  And he said, “Why, what evil has He done?” But they kept shouting all the more, saying, “Crucify Him!”? Matthew 27:22.
6. And after he brought them out, he said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” They said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.”— Acts 16:30-31   
7. How will we escape if we neglect so great a salvation? — Hebrews 2:3
8. The LORD said, “Do you have good reason to be angry?” Jonah 4:4
9. Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? Romans 8:35
10.”He said to them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” Acts 19:2
11. When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, The moon and the stars, which You have ordained; What is man that You take thought of him, And the son of man that You care for him? Psalm 8:4
12. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? Matthew 16:26.
13. Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? 2 Peter 3:11
14. What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us? Romans 8:31.
15. Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind, and said: Now prepare yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer me: Would you indeed annul my judgment? Would you condemn me that you may be justified? (Job 40: 6-8)

The most vital question ever asked is found in the most important book in the world--the BIBLE. It is also found in the hearts of all thinking people. This question has been asked in different forms, but in all its forms it amounts to the same thing. The Lord Jesus Christ stated it this way: "For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?" (Mark 8:36,37). Job asked many centuries ago, "How can a man be righteous before God?" (Job 9:2). In Acts 16:30, the Philippian jailer asked the question this way: "What must I do to be saved?"
Most people unfortunately never struggle to think about or find answers for the basic questions of existence and the origin, nature and destiny of life. The answers to these questions will consciously or unconsciously condition, empower or limit almost everything in that individual's life.Three of the most crucial questions we can ask about life are these: Where did we come from? Why are we here? And where will we go when we leave the earth? That last question is critical because it has eternal consequences. Since God created us with souls that will not die, and since God alone decides each person’s destiny, a fourth question becomes necessary: How can I be sure I am in the right relationship with God? 

The question is very important--so is the answer. Apart from the Bible, there is no valid answer. All human answers are vain and do not satisfy the longing soul. The Bible answers these questions with the authority of God.
Believe it or not, the kind of questions you ask determine the kind of life you lead. That’s because your questions activate its own set of answers, which lead to certain emotions, which then lead to certain actions (or inactions), followed by results. If you ask yourself limiting questions, you’ll get limited results. If you ask yourself mind-opening, forwarding questions, you’ll gain a lot more out of them.
 
Book of Job in the Bible is very significant to understand important things about Trails and suffering. Almost everyone at some point in life asks, "Why do bad things happen to good people? The Book of Job does not really answer the question, "Why is there suffering?" But it does show right and wrong ideas and feelings about suffering and the meaning of life. Job was very wise, rich, and good. Then suddenly terrible things happen to him. His ten children are killed. He loses all his wealth. And he becomes ill with a painful skin disease. Three of his friends come to visit him, and they try to explain to Job why these bad things have happened. They tell job that sin caused his suffering and God was punishing him. Job insists it is not true, but no one believes him. Job becomes very discouraged and angry but he still believes God cares about him, although he don't understand why he must suffer so. In the end, God ask some important question such as “Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? God asks Job. Tell me, if you have understanding. Who determined its measurements? Surely you know. Who stretched the line upon it? To what were its foundations fastened? Or who laid its cornerstone when the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy? (Job 38:4-7)
Then Job answered the Lord: “I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted. ‘Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge?’ Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know. I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you; therefore I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes. (Job 40:1-6)
I know that You can do everything: This wonderful statement from Job was obviously connected to the impressive display of the power and might of God over creation. Our faith has to believe that our God can do all things.  When you have faith that all things can be done through Jesus Christ then there should be no doubt in your heart, there should be no fear in your mind and there should be no worry in your life!
The scripture states "no purpose of yours can be thwarted."   Any purpose of God's cannot be opposed or defeated!  In all that you do, do it for Christ.  Make the Lord's purpose your purpose!  Make his cause your cause!  If your purpose aligns with the Lord's purpose, then it CAN NOT be defeated or opposed successfully!  That doesn’t mean there won't be any opposition against your purpose, but that opposition will not succeed.  So stay focused on your dream and fulfills your purpose in the Lord.  God can do ALL things and his purpose cannot be defeated! 

I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know: Job said many sad and imprudent things, both in his agonized cry of Job 3 and in the bitter and contentious debate with his friends. At times he doubted the goodness of God and His righteous judgment in the world; at times he doubted if there was any good in this life or in the life beyond. Now Job has come full circle, back to a state of humble contentment with not knowing the answers to the questions occasioned by his crisis and his companions.

I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees You: This reminds us that the most powerful aspect of Job’s encounter with God. It was not only primarily what God said; but God’s simple, loving, powerful presence with Job that changed him most profoundly.

And repent in dust and ashes: It was right for Job to repent. He had done nothing to invite the crisis that came into his life; the reasons for that crisis were rooted in the contention between God and Satan as recorded in Job 1 and 2. Yet he did have to repent of his wrong words and bad attitude after the crisis; both for excessively giving into despair in Job 3 and for his unwise and intemperate speech as he contended with his companions.

The greatest, the most important purposes were accomplished by this trial. Job became a much better man than he ever was before; the dispensations of God's providence were illustrated and justified; Satan's devices unmasked; patience crowned and rewarded; and the church of God greatly enriched by having bestowed  to it the vast treasury of divine truth which is found in the BOOK OF JOB

After this trial Job lived one hundred and forty years, and saw his children and grandchildren for four generations. . . . Job died, old and full of days: Job’s life ended long and blessed. He was well rewarded as a warrior who won a great battle for God’s glory.
The act of creation was pregnant with joy. God offers purpose, meaning and relationship. We are profoundly ignorant of so much, even in our technological age. We struggle with the reality that we are “knowing beings” with no one to know. Everyone lives in the presence and under the observation of God. The universe is not empty. But we have a very limited capacity for sight, especially of the moral kind.
We are not all like Job, but we all have Job’s God. Though we have neither risen to Job’s wealth, nor will, probably, ever sink to Job’s poverty, yet there is the same God above us if we be high, and the same God with his everlasting arms beneath us if we be brought low; and what the Lord did for Job he will do for us, not precisely in the same form, but in the same spirit, and with like design. In this great Book there is no readymade solution of problems. There is a great revelation. It is that God may call men into fellowship with Himself through suffering; and that the strength of the human soul is ever that of the knowledge of God.

THE FIRST TWO QUESTIONS OF THE BIBLE ARE STILL THE MOST IMPORTANT QUESTIONS FOR TODAY TO CONSIDER CLOSELY
Let us take a quick look at the first two questions of the Bible. For in those two questions we find BOTH all the problems of this age – and the problems of our life today? That is to say, when we find the answers to these two questions, we will find the answers to most of the questions of life.

We will find those two questions in – Genesis 3:1-9


1. “Has God indeed said…” or “Did God really say…”

2. “WHERE ARE YOU?”

What really happened in the garden? – God’s creation of beauty and perfection we need to understand the one who was behind man’s fall. God is not the author of sin, nor does He tempt people to sin; this is the work of the devil James 1:12 - 15 “Blessed is the man who endures temptation; for when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him. Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am tempted by God”; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone. But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death.”

We already know from scripture that Satan fell into sin prior to the work of God beginning in Gen. 1:3ff. He was a beautiful angel originally, rejoicing at God’s Creation (Job 38:4-7),
 but he sinned and was judged by God (Isa. 14:12-17; Ezek. 28:11-19). Note that Satan came to Eve in the appearance of a serpent, for he is a deceptive spirit and seldom appears to people in his true character. Here In Gen. 3, Satan is the serpent who deceives; in Gen. 4, he is the liar that murders (John 8:44).John 8:44 “You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it.” We must take care to avoid his deceptive ways.

 The very first way Satan attacked the mind of man, is still his favorite tactic today:

 “Did God really say…”

 When Eve began to doubt what God had said, or more specifically, when she began to question if He really meant it – Satan had his foot in the door. At the heart of the great moral questions of today – is the challenge to what God has said. (for it is most often NOT that we do not know what God has said, but rather that we do not want to accept that He meant it!). Deut 6:6-12 “And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. “So it shall be, when the LORD your God brings you into the land of which He swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give you large and beautiful cities which you did not build, houses full of all good things, which you did not fill, hewn-out wells which you did not dig, vineyards and olive trees which you did not plant—when you have eaten and are full—then beware, lest you forget the LORD who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage.”– yet, that is what our nation is attempting to do – that is the agenda of the far left wing of our society – to Get God’s Word away from People’s eyes and ears because it might
If Satan can get us to question God’s Word – to begin to doubt what God has already said – or to ask ourselves did God really mean what He said – then He has the door wide open in our minds.
 And he is cunning – crafty – and our minds are no match for his schemes. That is why we need God’s Word – to intake it, practice it, to preach it, to teach it, to progress in it – to do what the Psalmist says: “Thy word have I hid in my heart, that I may not sin against thee.”

The shortest question in the Bible is, remarkably, God's first question. It is a question asked in Genesis 3:9. Adam and Eve had just eaten some fruit from the forbidden tree and, sensing God's presence in the Garden of Eden, they hid among the trees. While they were hiding, God asked Adam a one-word question. In Hebrew that word is ayeka? In English it means, "Where are you?" It is a really great and short question, but in order to apprehend its greatness we must first get beyond the initial and justified reaction that this is a simple question. How, we have every right to ask, is it that the omniscient Lord of the universe, the One who spoke and the world came into being, the One who set the stars in their places and the sun in its course, the One who said to the ocean, this shall be your boundary, the God of all vision-how could it be that such a God had to ask Adam where he was?

The first question in the Bible teaches us that God seeks to ask His people questions. The Lord God asked, “Where are you, Adam?”  It is a question that echoes through history, “Where are you?” A question asked of every human being at every time and in every place, “Where are you? How did you get there? What have you become?” The answer added nothing to God’s knowledge, but it helped Adam understand where he was and it made clear his predicament. We need to know where we are. We need to know the difference between our illusions and His reality. God asks the deep questions because we avoid asking them. Where are you? I was doing some shopping, at work. I had a meeting. I needed to rest. I was very busy and could not come: at church, with friends at the club, at my studies. I was hiding behind a tree because I knew my nakedness. We have learned to hide behind so many other trees. We are children who have put our hands in front of our faces.
In the Bible God "draws near", "comes down" and seeks after us in order to enter into an intimate relationship with us. The whole Bible is the story of God seeking man.
Man is on the run before God because he knows that he is guilty before God. However, God comes and seeks us and wants to reestablish a relationship of mutual love. It is God who takes all necessary steps to make this possible again. That is the story of the Bible from the first to the last book where we finally read about the new heaven and the new earth: "Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people and God himself will be with them and be their God." (Revelation 21:3)
 The questions that God asks are not so much for His sake as they are for us. God wants to draw us near to Himself, and to search and know us. God delights in His children coming to Him and hearing Him as He speaks by His Spirit through His Word. He wants to speak to us, and for us to learn to listen to Him (Deut. 6:4; Prov. 2:1ff).When Adam and Eve sinned against God, they had gone their own way. They had lived according to their own plans, and done what was right in their own eyes Gen. 3:1-7. They had willingly broken fellowship and communion with God. Rather than truly listening and learning from their wonderful Creator and LORD, they chose to do their own will.Yet God graciously came to our first parents, and sought them out, even when they were not looking for Him! The Bible tells us that God came “walking in the garden in the cool of the day”(Gen. 3:8). Rather than join God for fellowship as would have been their normal practice and delight, Adam and Eve actually sought to hide from God because of the fear and shame that sin produces. Sin may cause us to hide from God, but in His mercy God seeks after His own.
Adam’s reaction to sin is the same reaction of man today.  The moment an individual is out of communion with God, he/she wants to hide from Him. When God originally placed Adam and Eve in the garden, they were in communion with their Creator.  Moses writes that God talked with Adam. But now that he has fallen, Adam has no desire to see his Creator; he has lost communion with his God, he cannot bear to see Him, and he runs to hide from God. But to his hiding place his Maker follows him. “Where are you?”
Several thousand years have passed away since the creation of the heavens and the earth, and yet this text in Genesis 3:9 has come rolling down the ages.   This text still echoes within the hearts of most men and women. Almost all individuals have heard this verse cited at some point in his or her lifetime.  This verse has resonated through the ages, especially the question that God asked Adam: “Where are you?”  Sometimes, as one witness the midnight hour stealing over himself/herself, one, too, may question his or her own relationship to God with the following questions: “Where am I? Who am I? Where am I going?

It is well for individuals to pause and to ask themselves the same question that God asked Adam and Eve.  Where do you stand in your relationship to God?  One must come to grips with his/her spiritual status. Have you asked yourself the question that God asked Adam? If not, why not? Whether you are an old man with hair turning gray, whether you are an old woman with eyes growing dim, whether you are a young boy or a young girl in the prime of your life, you will soon be in another world.  Since this is so, then one must reconsider his or her life by confronting the question head-on: “Where are you?”

Satan, sin and shame may drive us away from God, but God intends by grace to draw His dear children near to Him! (John 6:37, 44; James 4:8).

John Calvin wrote: “No one will dedicate himself to God until he be drawn by His goodness, and embrace Him with all his heart. He must therefore call us to Him before we call upon Him; we can have no access till He first invites us…allured and delighted by the goodness of God.”
What grace we behold in God coming to speak to the hearts of our first parents- -and to our hearts today!
God comes to us and asks us the question “Where are you?” so that we can see our need for Him and turn to Him and be restored from our sinfulness. God graciously promises His people that if we will turn to Him, He promises that He will have mercy on us and forgive us. God desires to restore His relationship to mankind that was broken by the fall. God desires to restore you to communion with Him right now.

Ultimately, God asks us the question of “Where are you?” so that we will be brought to see our sins and repent of them, finding grace in our time of need (Heb. 4:14-16).

As we have examined some of the questions of the Bible we have been drawing closer to the most important question of all. What is the truth about Jesus Christ? Why should Jesus become a sacrifice for the sins of other men? The Bible says that He was sinless, while all other men are sinners. But what does this mean? In what way was He different from other men?

These are serious matters and we must look to the Bible to discover the truth about them. The subject is really far too expensive to be handled in just a short study. To be fair, when seeking an answer to the mystery of the life of Jesus, we should take time and read the four Gospels—Matthew, Mark, Luke and John—in order to become familiar with the facts. However, even a complete knowledge of the facts will not remove the elements of mystery from our minds. Even the disciples of Jesus, who lived with Him and heard His teaching daily, and watched His miracles, and learned to love Him, were often puzzled by what they saw and heard. Jesus was a man, but He was not like other men! No one, not even His most bitter enemies, ever accused Him of sin. Who among you can prove me guilty of any sin? If I am telling you the truth, why don’t you believe me? (John 8:46).

Again Pilate went out and said to the Jewish leaders, “Look, I am bringing him out to you, so that you may know that I find no reason for an accusation against him.” (John 19:4).

Bible says “For God so loved the world that He gave his only son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life (John.3:16). Jesus Christ, the Son of God, loves us and gave Himself up for us, that He might redeem us from all wickedness. (Eph.5:2, Titus 2:14).


He was called the “Friend of sinners” They loved Him. People of all classes were attracted to Him, rich and poor, wise and simple, men, women and children. As we read the narrative, we notice that often even the worst of sinners were transformed into good and godly people as they came to know Him.He taught with authority. They were amazed at his teaching, because he spoke with authority. . . . They were all amazed and began to say to one another, “What’s happening here? For with authority and power he commands the unclean spirits, and they come out!” (Luke 4:32and 36). He performed miracles with power. He healed blindness, deafness, dumbness and all kinds of sicknesses. He even raised the dead to life. He had power to cast out evil spirits with a word, without incantations. So a report about him spread throughout Syria. People brought to him all who suffered with various illnesses and afflictions, those who had seizures, paralytics, and those possessed by demons, and he healed them. (Matthew 4:24). He claimed to have the power to forgive sins, and He proved it.
What kind of a person is this? Guessing or debating will not help. Millions of people have done this for centuries and gained nothing by it. We must examine the facts as the Bible reveals them to us. Christians are not philosophers who invent theories about God and about religious problems. Christians accept what God has revealed in the Bible even though they cannot understand everything.The mystery surrounding the character and the work of Jesus Christ is explained in the Bible by the fact that Jesus Christ was God revealed in human form. 



The gospel of the grace of God is most clearly set forth in Paul's epistle to the Romans. It is summed up in the third chapter, verses 23 to 25: "For ALL HAVE SINNED and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith."
The apostle Paul overwhelmingly proves that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. In the first chapter of Romans he proves that the Gentile world is guilty before God. What a black catalogue of sins! Then he goes on in chapters two and three to show that the Jewish nation is also guilty before God. He proves that "There is none who does good, no not one; there is none righteous, no not one." In chapter 5 verse 12 he explains why sin is so universal: because it came by one man--Adam. "Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned." This is the bad news.
The good news begins with the words, "being justified" (Rom. 3:24). This means "declared righteous." Certainly this is good news, that a guilty hell-deserving sinner can stand before a holy God in the very righteousness of Christ. In Acts 13:39 Paul said, "By him everyone who believes is justified from all things from which you could not be justified by the law of Moses."
 For your salvation, there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus who gave himself as a ransom for all men.  (1 Tim. 2:5-6).  Although Jesus died for all people’s sins, you cannot receive God’s forgiveness and pardon unless you personally receive this forgiveness through repentance and faith in Jesus. If you refuse, it is painful for God and you will not be saved. Repentance is more than confession. It is being truly sorry for and forsaking sin.  The blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sins. (Jn. 1:76; Rev. 1:5). Without the pouring out of blood, there is no forgiveness for sins. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness (Sin).  (1 Jn. 1:9). Let the wicked forsake his way, and the evil man his thoughts and let him return unto the Lord, and He will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for He will abundantly  pardon (Isa. 55:7).

Jesus said, “Except you repent, you will all likewise perish (Lk. 13:3,5).

Repent Means:- Turn to God and forsake your sins.
1.      Turn from sin. Gal: 5:19-21; Eph. 5:5; 1 Cor. 6:9-10.
2.      Turn from the world. 1 John 2:15; James 4;4.
3.      Turn from self. 2 Cor. 5;15; Luke 14:26.
4.      Turn from the devil. Luke 4:1-13; James 4:7.
5.      Turn from all other idol. 1 Thess. 1:9-10; Rev. 21;8.
6.      Turn from evil deeds. Mark 1:17;
7.      Make restitution where necessary. Luke 19:8.
 Jesus said, “If the Son therefore shall make you free, you shall be free indeed” (John 8:36).  Your sins will be forgiven and your heart will be cleansed by the blood of Christ.(John 1:7,9). The Bible says that God gives eternal life to those repent toward God and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ Acts. 20:21).
Jesus knocks at the door of your heart and He wants to come into your heart.  “Behold I stand at the door and knock; if any one hear my voice and open the door I will come into him”. ( Rev. 3:20). “ I am the light of the world; whoever follows me shall not walk in darkness but shall have the light of life”.  (John 8:12).  Believe in the light that you may become children of light.  (John 12:36).

 Beloved Reader,

“What will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul?" (Mark 8:36).
The single most valuable Prayer you can pray from the depth of your heart to God is:

“Dear Jesus, I accept that, I am a sinner and confess my sins I believe that you Died for my Sins, Rose from the Dead and Will Come Again.  Please forgive my sins.  Jesus, come into my heart and be the Lord of my life. I accept you as my Personal Savior and Lord.” 

Please do write to me for more information and prayer .