Thursday, November 28, 2013

YOUR SADNESS SHALL BE TURNED INTO JOY

YOUR SADNESS SHALL BE TURNED INTO JOY
Dearly ,Irreversibly and intensely loved child of God , our heavenly Father isnt ignorant of your pains and He has promised that today something will happen to you that'll turn your sadness into joy. In Every sad experience, there's a valuable lesson to learn designed to prepare you for a greater future. Be ever so greatful to God for wisdom acquired in whatever situation you find yourself. .."....Ask, using my name, and you will receive, and you will have abundant joy." John16.24 .Bible .Receive grace for overflowing joy in your heart as you read this now in Jesus name.

Tuesday, November 26, 2013

A SLAVE TO LOVE BY CHOICE.

A SLAVE TO LOVE BY CHOICE
Jesus replied, “If I said anything wrong, you must prove it. But if I’m speaking the truth, why are you beating me?” JOHN 18:23

God's kind of love is never self-serving or self-seeking. This love is sacrificial by nature even at the point of death  (Jn. 15:13), because through it we seize to be relevant .  The only thing that matters is the safety of the other person.

God's type of love is volitional, that is, an act of the will. It is not sentimental therefore , it has nothing to do with feelings , though it affects our emotions . It is a duty we have for another person . We can choose to love even when we don't feel like it and we can always conduct ourselves in a godly manner, when we feel God's kind of love. God's kind of love is also the antidote to selfishness and pride. These is the solution to the many breakup in families.  By looking away from yourself you overcome selfishness and this is only made possible  to falling in love with God more than with ourself. It is in discovering God's love that we destroy selfishness.

Jesus didn't feel some emotional sensation when He chose to die for us, but that was the greatest demonstration of God's kind of love that the world has ever seen. He made a choice in spite of His emotions. Because He was consumed with God's love, He acted properly, even when His emotions didn't agree.
As you read this now recieve grace to be the ultimate example of God's kind of love in your relationship in Jesus name.

Monday, November 18, 2013

God isn't ignorant of your pains

"The eyes of the LORD search the whole earth in order to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him" 2Chronicles 16.9

Saturday, November 16, 2013

We are stronger together , join a bible believing church today .

"Stay alert! Watch out for your great enemy, the devil. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour. Stand firm against him, and be strong in your faith. Remember that your Christian brothers and sisters all over the world are going through the same kind of suffering you are."1 peter5.8 Bible.  Fellowship in a bible believing church is a prerequisite for a long lasting loving relationship among the married. Join us at 
Gracevine family church by jdp new bridge , alcon rd, last bus stop, woji town, port harcourt, nigeria 8.30am sunday. 



Thursday, November 14, 2013

THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS WHEN ATHEISM THRIVES. EUTOPIA....? Part 1

Romans 1:28-32 MSG Bible

Since they didn’t bother to acknowledge God, God quit bothering them and let them run loose. And then all hell broke loose: rampant evil, grabbing and grasping, vicious backstabbing. They made life hell on earth with their envy, wanton killing, bickering, and cheating. Look at them: mean-spirited, venomous, fork-tongued God-bashers. Bullies, swaggerers, insufferable windbags! They keep inventing new ways of wrecking lives. They ditch their parents when they get in the way. Stupid, slimy, cruel, cold-blooded. And it’s not as if they don’t know better. They know perfectly well they’re spitting in God’s face. And they don’t care—worse, they hand out prizes to those who do the worst things best!

Saturday, November 9, 2013

HOW TO OVERCOME TEMPTATION: YES YOU CAN!

HOW TO OVERCOME TEMPTATION . YES YOU CAN !!
Mark 14:38 " Keep watch and pray, so that you will not give in to temptation. For the spirit is willing, but the body is weak.” Keep watch and pray, so that you will not give in to temptation. For the spirit is willing, but the body is weak.” . Our thoughts governs our actions .Temptation is linked directly to what we repeatedly think upon (Heb. 11:15). Temptation is positional and has to be entered into. It is avoided when we refusing to entertain thoughts that generate temptation (Prov. 23:7). We may not be able to completly stop thinking,but we can reject the negative thoughts in this world, by choosing to think on the positive truths of God. This is what we do when we pray .In prayer, we have our minds set upon God and therefore, are not receptive to thoughts that conceive temptation. Temptation or sin must be conceived (Jas. 1:14-15). In the physically , the easiest way to avoid an unwanted pregnancy is to avoid conception, so it is in the spiritual world.It is easier to avoid being tempted by being in constant communion with God, than it is to overcome temptation once it has been conceived.We are admonished as believers to reflect and meditate upon eight positive principles of thinking that will lead to a victorious Christian life (Phil. 4:8). These are things that are "true," that is: honorable, truthful and upright. Things that are "honest," that is: honorable, truthful, genuine, not characterized by deception or fraud. Things that are "just," that is: in accordance with what is right, or right conduct; any circumstance, fact or deed that is right. Things that are "pure," free from defilement or impurity.Things that are "lovely," pleasing, agreeable, inspiring love or affection. A "good report," that is: a saying or report that is positive and constructive rather than negative and destructive. "Virtue," which is moral excellence, righteousness and goodness. "Praise," or what is praiseworthy; expressing one's esteem of a person and his virtues. We need to focus on the good in every area of our lives.Celebrating every work of God's hand such as the air we breath will bring peace and keeps our hearts and minds following hard after the Lord. Receive grace to overcome every temptation against you and recover all that the enemy has stolen from you in Jesus name.

Saturday, November 2, 2013

Gratuitous evil and God . The Athiest's misconception .

THE PROBLEM OF EVIL IN THE WORLD. PART ............2
If there actually is a God who is all knowing and wise then , Why did God allow Satan in to the garden of Eden ?where was God during the temptation in the garden ? Why does. God allow so much evil and suffering in the world.?
It is like the question often asked by the Nigerian Atheist :
Despite the fact that Nigeria is ranked one of the most religious countries in the world, why does God allow for the prevalence of so much corruption especially among church folks? This question is  akin to the atheist question on the issue of gratuitous evil and discernment. 
The average atheist position is that the problem of gratuitous natural evil seems to create a problem for people who want to be moral. They perceive a baby dying of a painful disease as a moral evil and then judge God to be an immoral monster for allowing that to happen. But the theist's view of God's sovereignty suggests that the athiest's judgment is in error: The the questions often asked by atheists is, how do we know God does not have some greater reason for allowing that suffering? But doesn't that mean that all of our moral judgments are possibly in error? If we lack the knowledge and scope of cognition to judge God as immoral for allowing a baby to die of a horrible disease, are we not similarly unqualified to judge a human who can cure a dying baby, but chooses not to? Going even further, if we see someone about to die in a burning building , should we try to save them? What if God is trying to accomplish some greater good by allowing that person to die?

In short, if we are in no position to judge the morality of God's actions or inactions, how are we in a position to judge each other's moral actions or to even make moral decisions in the first place? As the disease-stricken baby shows, our moral judgment can err. How can we know, then, when our moral judgment is in error? If we assume the theist's response to the problem of evil is correct, then our moral sense errs quite frequently, usually in response to all the horrible natural evil surrounding us. Does this not render attempting to behave morally absurd?

THEIST ANSWER TO THE ABOVE QUESTIONS

It is the absence of an argument whose premises are attested even more powerfully than the existence of objective moral values and duties that makes the  atheist a moral sceptic and anti-realist. The atheist would need to put himself/ herself  in the shoes of the theists and ask if they confront the same problem as the Nietzschean (Nie·tzsche   (Friedrich Wilhelm 1844-1900 German philosopher who reasoned that Christianity's emphasis on the afterlife makes its believers less able to cope with earthly life. He argued that the ideal human, the Übermensch, would be able to channel passions creatively instead of suppressing them) . After all, it was the death of God that led Nietzsche to proclaim the advent of nihilism ( the belief that traditional morals, ideas, beliefs, etc., have no worth or value: the belief that a society's political and social institutions are so bad that they should be destroyed ). But the theist has the resources to establish objective moral values and duties. The atheist can recognize that the argument from apparently gratuitous evil in the world will not do because of the infeasibility of proving that the evil we see is, indeed, gratuitous. So what justification is there for being an atheist and, hence, a moral sceptic?
Given our historical and cognitive limitations, it is clear that we are simply not in a position to say with any sort of confidence that the evil we observe in the world is pointless or unnecessary.

This ofcourse is not in defence of consequentialism as a theory of ethics. According to consequentialism, the moral rightness or wrongness of an action is determined solely by its consequences. This is a laughable theory of ethics. On consequentialism if your torturing and raping a senior citizen would somehow ultimately redound to the benefit of mankind, then not only is this action morally permissible for you, but you are morally obligated to do it! Rather the theist holds that we have certain obligations to fulfill even if no good consequences result and certain prohibitions to obey regardless of the benefits that might ensue from flouting our duties. As a theist, I see our moral duties as grounded in God’s commands, which are reflections of His holy and loving character, not in the consequences.
As for God’s own actions, I don’t think that God has any moral duties to fulfill, since He presumably doesn’t issue commands to Himself! So it is meaningless to speak of the moral rightness or wrongness of God’s actions. What we can ask is whether His acting in a certain way would be consistent with His character. Would it be consistent with His character, for example, not to intervene to save a baby from dying of a horrible disease or someone from perishing in a burning building? And for the theist the answer is, yes, God can have good reasons for not intervening in such situations and so does not act contrary to His character. This is against the backdrop of the theist's philosophy of  an afterlife which can be scientifically proven through the law of conservation of energy(for matter cannot be totally destroyed but can only be changed from one state to another. )

So suppose that I am a person who wants to do his moral duty. I am a doctor who can save a baby from dying of a disease. Do I have an obligation to do so? Of course, all things being equal. For God has commanded us, to love our neighbour as ourself  ,I would violate this command if I did not try to save the baby. Of course, all things are not always equal: suppose I am in the middle of critical surgery and cannot leave to save the baby without losing the patient. Then love of my neighbor does not require me to abandon the patient for the baby. This is why moral decision-making can sometimes be so challenging .
Again, all things being equal, you should try to save the person threatened by the burning building. (But if that means, for example, abandoning your own children to be drowned in order to do so, then you are not so obligated.) “What if God is trying to accomplish some greater good by allowing that person to die?” It doesn’t matter! You have an objective duty to fulfill which God has laid upon you. You do your duty and leave it up to God to work out the consequences. After all, He knew in advance whether or not you would try to save that person and factored that into His plan. It’s not as if you’re going to mess up His providential plan by intervening!

Now all of what’s been said so far is preliminary to the atheist's real question: “how are we in a position to judge each other's moral actions or to even make moral decisions in the first place?” The answer is that we do not discern our moral duties by trying to look into the future and determine whether the consequences of our action are on balance good or bad. Rather (i) God has written His moral law upon our hearts (Romans 2.14-15), so that we have God-given moral intuitions to direct us; (ii) God has revealed to us His moral law in Scripture, e.g., the Ten Commandments and the Sermon on the Mount; and (iii) God has created man in His image, so that every person is invested with intrinsic moral worth and therefore to be treated as an end and not a means. While these guides do not make moral decision-making always easy, I find that it is more often than not pretty clear what my moral duty is in most everyday situations. It’s obeying the command not discerning it  that is hard to fulfill .

Conversely ,if consequentialism were true, then you would be absolutely right that we could never determine our moral duties. Some action which appears horrible in the short run could turn out to be a great boon to mankind( for example ,the humiliating death of Christ ), and an action that appears to be beneficent could turn out to be disastrous in the long run. We can be thankful that God has not abandoned us to such moral chaos but has given us resources to help discern His moral will for our lives.