One thing that can help focus our decisions is how we see our purpose in life.

I recommend “A purpose driven life” by Rick Warren as a book to read if you need to understand your purpose more clearly. This book is easy to read and has helped millions of people find purpose. I am not going to talk about purpose so I will leave that for you to determine for yourself. Knowing our purpose does help however!

Now I am going to approach the discussion on decision making from the perspective of a Christian. If you haven’t yet put God and Jesus in control of your life, many of these comments could help you as well! The challenge for those of us that are not Christian, is that the fight is much harder and uncertain, and until we get God’s invisible help (i.e. accept God can help, and ask him too), our final success is not assured, (at least, that’s the bibles perspective).

So let’s discuss the fact that our thoughts lie to us daily!

This is not a piece of advice for the faint hearted and you will need courage to read the next pages. If you are feeling fear or rage or anger rising up, you probably need to stop and ask why? Since all we have agreed is to be honest with ourselves, so there should not be a problem with reading any of the content that follows. I want to make it clear, there is no demand that you believe or accept the words that follow. That is for you to decide. All I request is that you read them so you are informed and you can decide for yourself. With this encouragement and warning (because I expect you will now be directly subject to some of the experiences of this spiritual war as the negative influences will not want you reading this, and war is not always pleasant), I want to continue and explain how our thoughts lie to us.

They can lie in simple physically evident ways like the size of the moon on the horizon at dusk being viewed as much bigger than when it is in the sky over our heads. (Scientists have measured it to be the same in both places despite the fact it does not appear to be, but please check! The apparent difference in size that makes the moon on the horizon larger is an optical illusion. i.e. our mind tricks us). This is a simple example, but sometimes lying thoughts can be more complex, difficult to discern, and have a longer lasting impact on us.

Knowledge can sometimes help us overcome these false perceptions in the physical world if we know the perceptions are false, but we don’t always know they are false. These false perceptions are everywhere. What do I mean? Let’s look at a common everyday example.

Before I try to explain this, I want to say that because I am not all knowing, because I am human, and because I am limited by the dimensions of my reality, I cannot do a great job of this explanation! I know God can, but he has distinct advantages I can never start to aspire to.

 However, I must attempt to explain this because so many people are interested in this aspect of our Christian faith. I personally believe this is one aspect of God that we need not fully understand. Why else would God have made this such a complex concept for us to understand and explain? Perhaps he needs us to know he is one, but also needs us to identify with the different aspects or personalities of the persons of the Godhead. Jesus being a human like us is easier to understand and identify with! The Father is mysterious and awesome, only perhaps only fully understood in the light of Jesus’ life. Holy Spirit is unseen and while a person who gently communicates with us, is the experienced power of God in our daily lives. The gentle side of God, Holy Spirit is probably the most “feminine” side of God that we can experience. Holy Spirit is also the power of God on earth now! Nothing can stand against His power!

Okay so is God one person or more? Well Jesus talked to God the Father (see John 17) and went to the Father after his death when he ascended to heaven, asking the Father to send Holy Spirit (See John 14:16-17 which says “And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever— ¹⁷the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.” ) So there appears to be three persons; the Father, Jesus and Holy Spirit(the counselor).

So how can three single persons end up equaling one person?

Well there is a mathematical answer to this 1 x 1 x 1 = 1  (yeh, I know this is more amusing than a valid argument, but it does help understand the math of it. I just had to put it in J. That’s my quirky sense of humour! )

To help us the early followers developed a term they called the "trinity", best represented by a triangle with three points that is one object. The Father, Jesus and Holy Spirit are one God, but three independent persons who are that one God.

We can’t fully understand this but please think of a human example of conjoined twins. These are two people joined in one body. (Yes! I know they are not “normal” from our perspective but conjoined twins are two people that are one person!). Now, since each of the conjoined twins are unique persons they can be considered two people, but they operate as one person.

I do agree this is a lousy analogy to God’s trinity of three persons being one, but it’s the best I can do in human terms. God of course does not have to be bound by space and time like conjoined twins. God is also perfect and has no imperfections! God's trinity is not physically connected in space and in time, but is actually completely and perfectly connected in Spirit. This connection is both outside and inside the dimensions of space and time!

Also the Bible says God the Father is equal to Jesus in the Godhead, but is actually over Jesus in authority. Jesus wants it this way and voluntarily submits to the Father’s authority. Holy Spirit was sent to Earth by the Father at Jesus request, so Holy Spirit must submit to the Father's authority as well. Jesus sent Holy Spirit back to us when he went back to heaven. Holy Spirit lives with us, inspires us, and enables us to connect with God by pointing both to Jesus and to the Father. Jesus pointed to the Father when he was alive on earth, and pointed out the Father is the one worthy of our worship. He wants us to pray to the Father.

So the real answer is that God is one and three at the same time. Maybe one way to look at it is that we are also 3 in 1 in a strange way. Firstly, we have a Spiritual entity, that mysterious part of us that we know is there but don’t fully understand , secondly we have a Psychological entity, our mind emotions and will, and thirdly we have a body, our physical arms, legs torso etc. So we are three in one as well! We are nothing like God! But perhaps we can say we are poor reflections of his image.

Well, I did say I didn’t think I could do a great job of the topic! I do hope what I did do helped you understand a bit better!

Another deep question given to me and that I have the privilege to answer.

This needs to be answered in two parts. I will answer the question of what it means about God is coming back in today’s blog, and I will explain how Jesus and God are one person yet two(actually more than two), in tomorrow’s blog.

So let me answer “What does it mean God is coming back? He was never here!”

Firstly we need to know where in the bible are some of the parts talking about the return of Jesus / God. There are lots of them so I will just list a few:

Matthew 24:23-31, Matthew 24:36-44, Matthew 25:1-13, Matthew 25:31-46, Mark 13:32-37, Acts 1:10-11, 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18, 1 John 3:2.

There are actually about 4457 references to God in the NIV version of the bible. I don’t have time to check them all out, but the ones I checked all refer to the return of Jesus specifically, and do not reference God the Father as returning. So, I wonder if perhaps we could switch the question slightly since the bible actually does talk of Jesus returning rather than Father God?

To the first, “Was God ever here?” the first most important answer is that Jesus is God, and he most certainly was here, so God was definitely here. However, until I explain how God and Jesus are one (tomorrow’s blog) we just have let it rest. Still, there are many references to God in the Bible before Jesus even arrived on the Earth, and then there are plenty of references to God after Jesus was here.

So what is this piece about Jesus returning? Well this is referring to when Jesus returns with his body and in a very special way! This occurs at the end of time. It says “For as the lightning comes from the east and shines as far as the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man” so it will be a very bright shiny event.

It also says “Then will appear in heaven the sign of the Son of Man, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And he will send out his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.” This piece shows that he will be coming to get those who are alive that love him! It will be really different and unnatural in the way things happen at that time, but he will take us along with him if we are alive.

When will this occur? We don’t know, and will not know, because it says “But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only.” This means that those people who say tomorrow will be the end of the world are sure to be wrong! The bible says they will be wrong. Don’t believe them!

Then what will Jesus do when he comes? It says “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.” We don’t know for sure what this means but later it points out that Jesus will take those who are righteous to himself and those that aren’t will go to a place of pain to pay for what they did wrong forever!

Righteous means “made right”, or “made to be as if they had never sinned”. This refers to those who appreciate what God did for us in Jesus’ death and love God. Unrighteous are those that don’t do this.

So what about those that have already died? The bible says “But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep.”  This says that somehow, Jesus will also bring with him, all those who have died. “Fallen asleep” is a nice way of saying died!

Finally what does this mean to us? Well it says “we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.”

This is so cool! Those that accept what God did for us through Jesus (check out yesterdays blog to get an understanding), are promised that we become spiritually God’s children immediately.  However, we are going to become special and get special bodies like Jesus got when he comes again. We don’t get that body  yet, that’s what “what we will be has not yet appeared” means. However,when Jesus comes we change and become like him. That’s so cool! I do hope he comes while I’m alive but I know it’s not that likely because somewhere on this earth there is likely to be some joker somewhere who is saying Jesus will come tomorrow and that stops it happening!

Not many people get to ask a deep question like this, and it is one that we all should have an understanding of.

The answer is linked to two very absolute aspects of God’s make-up.  The sacred writings(our bible) explains that God is extreme love, and God is totally fair to everyone. (The word for being fair is “just” in the bible, and that word “justice” comes from it). Now if God loves us very, very much and is absolutely fair, then he has to make sure that if he forgives us, we will agree that he has been absolutely fair in doing so!

This means that if God has to forgive the selfish, ignorant and nasty things we all do (the SIN), then we would have to be happy to agree that the forgiveness given was fair and just. When we stand in front of the God of the universe and we see in each other all the horrible things we have all done, and Jesus is there, and God says we are forgiven, we need to be able to agree that the forgiveness is so fair and vast that we cannot argue about it in any manner. To argue with God would need to be so wrong as to be totally unthinkable!

Probably it’s best if I give you a real example.  . .

I come from South Africa, and at one point uneducated young tribal men got the mistaken belief (thanks to the occult) that if they stole a white baby (or young child) and raped them, they would be cured of HIV. Quite a few young babies and children were maimed and died due to this horrible sinful act. The youngest I heard of was a three month old girl who died.

Now, if that mother stood in front of God in the great judgment, and God said he had just decided to  forgive the man without punishment or repayment for the evil, how would she feel? Not too appreciative of God right? I don’t think the mothers of those children would consider that justice or fair punishment for the crimes, do you? I know I wouldn’t!

So God had to find a price that could be paid for all the sins that have ever been done, or that would ever be done(and there are far more horrible sins than the one I have mentioned). He had to find a sacrifice (that is an acceptance of punishment replacing punishment of the person who did it), that we would simply have to agree pays the price for those horrendous sins. It would also have to pay for the ones that are less horrible, the ones we do, such as adultery, stealing, lying, telling false stories etc.

When we get to the heavenly judgment(and we all will, whether Christian or not), we will see our amazing God for who he truly is! (We need to understand that right now we really have no idea of his power, beauty and intelligence!) When we see God, and also know that he allowed us as humans to cause him extreme pain (the word “excruciating” come from a root meaning of the “Cross” or "crucifixtion" ) and that we, as the human race killed the human form of God as Jesus, we will be so shocked and appalled at what we did that it will be just mind blowing! We will be total horrified as to why God would allow that to happen! It will be more shocking than the worst crime ever committed, more shocking than the cumulative effect of the worst crimes ever committed! We will see just how much God allowed himself to endure because he loves us! If we don’t get it yet, we will then!

God chose to die on that cross to give us the ability to have a fair forgiveness, one that we absolutely couldn’t get without Jesus death. It was the only thing big enough, extreme enough, and great enough to get us all to agree (in the future at that great judgment) that it was fair payment for the things done against us as individuals throughout the history of the world.

So, that’s why God can’t just forgive us without this extreme sacrifice! How else could he explain to those mothers that it was okay to let those men into heaven if they accept the sacrifice Jesus made, and also get everyones agreement that it was, unless the sacrifice was absolutely extreme?