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Christmas means Christ Mass. It's the annual celebration of the birth of Jesus. A lot of the tradition of Christmas (and most of our church traditions) come from Pagan traditions. That doesn't necessarily mean that celebrating Christmas with all the American Christmas traditions (trees, presents, ornaments, etc) is bad. We just need to make sure that Jesus is central in all of it, just like we need to do with every other aspect of our lives.
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Wow, deep question. I'm not sure exactly what kind of love you're talking about. There is love for God, love for a friend, love for a family member and romantic love. Each of those loves looks a little different but still have some overlaps. The Bible actually uses different words in the Greek (the original language of the New Testament) to talk about different kinds of love. I'm assuming you're asking about romantic love. But first let me talk about the overlap for all the types of love.
Jesus is given as our ultimate example of love. John 15:12-13 says, "This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you. Greater love has not one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends." Our example of love is Jesus' love for us. Jesus loves us enough that He died a brutal death on the cross so that we might have a relationship with Him. He pursues us even when we turn our backs on Him and don't deserve His love. Love needs to look like that, whether it's between family members, friends or romantic love. When it comes to love this is a principle that we need to apply. And when it's truly love, you'll want to love the other person in this way!
Romantic love is hard to explain. It's one of those things that you need to experience than you will know. I have a really stupid analogy but it might be helpful. You know when you look in the dishwasher and you're trying to figure out if it's clean or dirty dishes in there? Often we look around and think, "I think it's they're clean" but you look around and eventually find some dirty dishes and realize they're not clean. But when the dishes are clean you know. There's no doubt, it's obvious that they're clean. I think the same thing is true with love. If you think you're in love, you're probably not yet. But when you know you're in love, then you probably are. Of course they are exceptions to this, but I think in general it's true.
A great passage on what true love looks like is from in 1 Corinthians 13. Read that chapter and meditate on what it says about love. Song of Solomon is a great book on romantic love. It's a little PG-13, in fact at some points in in history Jewish kids weren't allowed to read it. -
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That's kind of weird isn't it? Jesus commands us to go out and make disciples of all nations, so why did He tell His disciples to not tell people about Him sometimes?
People talk about this and sometimes call it "The Messianic Secret." Basically meaning Jesus is trying to keep it hush hush that He is the Messiah. I believe the reason He does this (only sometimes, not every time) is because there were 2 improper reactions to Jesus.
1. Jesus is performing miracles, He is the Messiah so let's make Him King! The Jews were waiting the Messiah to save them from the oppression of the Romans. So they would think, "He's the Messiah will be our political king." But Jesus had no desire for that, He came to be the Savior of our souls. People trying to make Him their political king was not the right reaction.
2. Many people wanted to kill Jesus for what He was doing. They didn't believe He was the Messiah and deserved to die. So people would have come to kill Him before He finished His ministry. Jesus came to die on the cross for our sins, but also wanted to teach us a lot before then.
So sometimes Jesus would tell people not to tell people that He was the Messiah to avoid the improper reactions to Him before He died on the cross for our sins. But not He has and our command is to go out into the world and make disciples of all nations, teaching everyone to obey all Jesus has commanded us to do. -
God is actually un-created. Because if something created God then that thing would be greater than God and it would be God. And then we would ask what created that thing? Then what created that thing? We would ask that question for eternity.
Both Evolution and the Creation story have impossible beginning. If Evolution is true then something came from nothing, which is impossible. If Creation is true then God is eternal and un-created, which is impossible. They both actually take faith to believe, but the Bible tells us that God is the Creator of everything and nothing created Him. -
We are saved not by our good works but by God's grace (Eph 2:10). The idea behind people not going to heaven when they die is that they won't get a chance to ask for forgiveness for committing suicide. We need to have Jesus forgive all of our sins, but the Bible never says that you need to ask him for forgiveness for each individual sin. Think about all the sins that you have forgotten to ask forgiveness for. Think about all the sins you committed without knowing. We will all die not having asked for forgiveness for each individual sin. When Jesus forgives your sin He forgives all of them!
Suicide is a horrible thing. It's painful for so many people. It's a permanent solution to what most of the time is a very temporary problem. It's a sin and it's never the right answer, but it is not beyond God's forgiveness. So if a Christian commits suicide they can still go to heaven, that's not an excuse to do it, but it's a reminder that God's love and forgiveness is far reaching! -
The Bible doesn't say what kind of fruit it was. It's generally depicted as an apple in art and stories about Adam and Eve, but the Bible never says.
I know a lot of us have thought how can a piece of fruit been that tempting? But I think the truth is that all of us would have eventually eaten the fruit. To have the freedom to do anything but to be told that you can't do one thing makes it interesting. If you were told you go could anywhere in a friend's house except on mysterious room and that door was always, wouldn't you really want to take a peek in there?
Adam and Eve ate the fruit, we probably would have eventually done it too. And we all have sinned against God, so we can't blame them for ruining everything. -
That's a great question!
I grew up in a Christian home, believing Christianity because that's how I was raised. I wasn't serious about my relationship with God though. I went to church and went through the motions without truly making it my own. In jr. high my top priorities in life were basketball and my girlfriend. I got a knee injury and I got dumped, so both of those things got taken away from me. I was mad at God but God clearly told me that I been living on the fence. I needed to make up my mind and choose to live for Him or myself. And I felt like the Creator of the universe talked directly to me, so how can I say no? So I chose to live for Him and got serious about it!
I have never had a doubt in my mind about God being real. Technology amazes me. I look at CD and marvel at how when I put that in my computer it knows how to play music or make a video play or a game play. That's insane! I have apps on my phone that blow my mind. Shazam will hear a few seconds of a song then tell me the name of the band and song, along with tons of other info. When I think about those things I think about how some genius was able to create those things. There is no doubt in my mind that someone created those things. Our universe and our human bodies are way more complex and much harder to explain than any app or technology that we have. There must have been a Creator! There is no way life as we know it just happened. There has to be a God!
So I haven't had doubts about the existence of God, but I have had doubts about the Bible. When I was in high school I read some objections that people had about the Bible and it totally shook my faith. I didn't know how to answer them. So I looked into the objections 1 by 1 and looked for answers. I found answers that made sense to every single objection these people had when they said the Bible contradicted itself. I learned that we will continually find questions and objections the Bible and God will continually prove Himself true. There are some objections and questions about God that we won't understand until we get to heaven because God is infinite and we are not. Our brains can't fully comprehend who God is. There are things that won't make sense to us. But that's a good thing. If we understood everything about God then He would be a very small god. If we can understand everything about God then we are bigger than God, and that's not a good god to have! We need a God who is too great to comprehend! And that's the God that we have! -
We don't know exactly how heaven is going to be like. We don't know exactly how and when we will interact with other people but we will see people who have passed away. In heaven we will get to be with all the other followers of Jesus. I know a lot of people who are anxious to see their loved ones who have passed away again. It will be an incredibly joyful time to be reunited with some of our loved ones!
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Well, different people have different ideas of the four bases, so I don't know how to answer that exactly. But so often we ask the question, "How far can I go before it's a sin?" That question is asking, "How far can I get away from God before I sin?" And, "How far can I go with someone who is not my spouse?" Instead we should ask, "How holy can I be?" It's not easy, but it's the best thing to do. I know lots of people who regret doing things sexually with people they ended up not marrying, but I don't know a single person who regrets waiting to save all of that for their future spouse.
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The fruits of the Spirit are from Galatians 5:16-26. The idea is that if we have the Holy Spirit then we will have some fruit to show it. If a limb is on an apple tree then you expect it to have have apples on it, otherwise you wouldn't believe it was part of an apple tree.
The passage says that the fruits of the Spirit are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control. If you have the Holy Spirit then you should be growing in those attributes. Doesn't mean you'll be perfect, but they should be continually growing and defining who we are. -
Everyone reacts to things differently. Some people are very emotional and some people show no emotion no matter what happens.
I have seen people who typically are very emotional show now emotion during worship and people who typically show no emotion cry uncontrollably during worship. Worship can be a very powerful experience. Unfortunately, most of the time I think we just go through the motions of worship. We sing along but we're not thinking about what we're singing. We're not really thinking, "Yes, I am singing this words to my Savior." We're just singing along because that's what we're supposed to do.
When we truly are worshiping Jesus it is often very emotional. Crying can happen during worship for lots of different reasons. That person may be experiencing pain and is giving it over to God, or wrestling with God on why they are suffering. They may be overjoyed with God's love and are so emotional they cry tears of joy. Crying isn't always bad, they can be tears or joy.
There are lots of different reasons people cry during worship. We may not know what's going on with that person. We're not in a place to judge that person. But that person is probably connecting with God on a deep level at that point. -
Each domination has things that make it unique. But almost any aspect of the Presbyterian Church you can find something just like that or very similar in a church that isn't Presbyterian.
Presbyterians have something called Session which is a group of elders (a title given to people in the church). They help make some of the big picture decisions for the church. Often they vote on things brought to them that come from smaller committees in the church (Missions, Children's, Students, etc). So they vote on if we should add a second service (Fireside) and they said yes. They approved expanding the Student Ministries Room (thankfully)! The smaller committees or commissions (as they are sometimes called) make a lot of the decisions but bring the bigger picture stuff to Session. Churches also report of the denomination itself to make sure that it falls inline with their rules and beliefs. They denomination also provides some support to the churches.
Presbyterians baptize babies, but a lot of other denominations do not do that. Also, Presbyterians have much stricter rules about who can do communion, baptisms and other things like that. It has to be a pastor who has graduated from seminary and took a special test to be a Presbyterian Pastor.
There are some theological views that Presbyterians have that are different than some others. But there are also a lot of denominations that share those same views.
The differences between denominations are usually about small issues and not big important issues. And each denomination has things they believe that are right and wrong. No one denomination is perfect. Don't take pride in being a part of a denomination, take pride in the fact that Jesus loves you! It's also important to remember that in the end it doesn't matter what denomination you belong to, it matters that you have a relationship with Jesus! -
I don't know exactly what you mean by give up. He is all powerful. He can make anything happen. There is nothing that He is too difficult for Him. So I wouldn't say that He ever gives up.
Also, God knows everything that will ever happen. So He already knows the outcome of everything. He knows who won't accept Him and who will. But He still sent Jesus to die for all of us. Whether we choose to accept Him or not. I think that's the greatest example of how God doesn't give up! -
I think we all know the answer to that one...Chipotle!!!
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That's a great question, thanks for asking! That is a question that everyone on earth should ask themselves. What if what I believe isn't true? And if what I believe isn't true what are the consequences of that? Unfortunately very few people actually ask those questions. They never really question what they believe. I believe that people should be devoted to truth above anything else. And if you come to realize that what you believe isn't true then you need to adjust what you believe. Most of the time when people realize that what they believe may not be true they just ignore that and keep believing what they want to believe.
For a long time I never really questioned what I believed and then I thought I would go read about what atheists thought about Christianity. My faith got totally rocked as I read their objections about what I believed because I couldn't answer there questions. I knew I had 3 options: 1. I could ignore them and keep believing what I believe 2. I could give up on Christianity because I didn't know the answers 3. Or I could try to see if there are answers out there for these objections.
I chose to look into the answers. It turned out that every objection that I read about actually had a very reasonable answer. It ended up being a really good thing to have to doubt my faith. Each religion (or non religious philosophy like atheism) has some very difficult things to believe. If you have never doubted what you believe then you probably haven't thought enough about it. I'm glad that I'm no longer blindly following Christianity instead I know much more about why I believe what I believe. That doesn't mean I know the answer to everything. There are questions that I could be asked that I would have to do some research on. And there are questions about each religion or philosophy that can't be answered, as well.
You are totally right that most people who aren't Christians and that if Christianity isn't true there could be a deity out there who is very displeased with Christians. There are so many different views out there and they can't all be right. In fact they are all so different that if one of them is right then the other ones cannot be right.
I've thought about and was something that I worried about in the past but I honestly don't worry about it anymore. I don't worry about it anymore because I am so confident in Jesus. I have doubted Him, put Him on trial and He proved Himself to be who He said He is. People way smarter than me have done the same. A very smart man named Lee Strobel was reporter in Chicago and went to write an article to prove that Jesus never rose from the dead. As he went out to prove that he actually found more evidence that He did rise from the dead. He wrote some very interesting books about it (Case for Faith, Case fore Christ and more).
I really encourage to do the same thing that Lee Strobel and I did and put Jesus on trial. Seek out if He truly is who He says He is. Read the books by Lee Strobel. Read Matthew, Mark, Luke or John in the Bible and investigate who Jesus is. Pray a very simple prayer, "God if you're real and if Jesus is real then please show me." Don't just say the words, make it real and heartfelt.
I'm here to talk, answer questions, or hear about what you believe. You can do that through formspring or through email (tcole@saratogapres.org) or in person. Hope you're doing well and thanks again for the great question! -
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It's impossible to prove or disprove any stories like that. Some people could have had a dream and it wasn't real. We also don't know really what a lot of the religious figures looked like exactly. Someone could have thought they saw one person when they actually saw Jesus.
I've never heard of someone from another religion meeting their own religious figure at a near death experience but I have heard stories of people of other faiths meeting Jesus and it changing their lives.
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