“Good Heavens!” is often used as an exclamation. But do people know what they are saying? 

Why do we say this?

I have even heard atheists saying this! Words that we don’t think about roll of our tongues daily and this is one of the least insulting, but I often think “You have no idea how good!” and “If I were to bet, it would be you don’t even know what is symbolized by heavenly things in the sacred writings” 


Heaven in the bible  described as a place we can only get to if we have our lives lived in the way Jesus showed us when he lived on this Earth. Yeah! I know, if you don’t believe Jesus was worth anything that is just crazy talk!  

Unfortunately, that’s what the bible says people will say. It also says that whether you like it or not, you will not be allowed in. You will be left outside in the company of those that like to do evil things, forever, and unable to die, but able to experience pain they can dish out. This is the company of murderers, sex offenders, manipulators, liars etc. 

Then inside the heavenly walls we have no pain, are entitled to choose eternal life, which is referred to as drinking from the river of the water of life. There are special magical trees that heal both physically, socially, psychologically and every other way just by touching their leaves. Fruit abounds all the time. We will be continually able to live and enjoy our activities. Work will no longer be a drudge but only enjoyable and not tiring. We will not have to work at learning, I sure am looking forward to that. We will just know as we are known! 

The real amazing thing is that we get to see God, and apparently he is so bright, that there is no need for a sun in heaven.  

Who can go there? Anyone!

The church and Jesus have been asking us to join them since he walked this Earth. Unfortunately it’s an invitation that gets ignored because we think of it is not needed right now, or just a fairy story (and I know it sounds like one). 

Fortunately it’s not a fairy story! It’s real! At least for Christians! Other will probably not make it there.

I want to go there, I have to meet my dad and a few other special people I have been separated from over the years! I’m looking forward to a sip of that water with them as we chat about good new times.

This is a pleasant thought that helps me deal with tough days.

Maybe it can become a pleasant thought for you too!

The biblical writing in Genesis uses a word “ywm” or “yom”  that many translations convert to the English word “day”.  The first time this is used is described in the diagram below.

 

 

or

alternatively it can mean PERIOD OF time, depending on the context.

 

Perhaps ONLY God knows the full context of Genesis 1.

 

Genesis 1 was probably written by Moses, but the things and events he explains must have been brought to him from the past.

   Did he copy down something from an even older document?

The word for God in Genesis 1 and that in Genesis 2 differ as well.

This perhaps suggests that Moses was writing down two different representations of creation and putting them together to build a holistic view for his readers.

 

The best understanding of Genesis 1 is that it describes the creation of the earth and the things in and on it. Genesis 2 describes the establishment of man’s relationship with God and so it comes at the creation from a totally different perspective.

 

Now, to get back to the word “ywm” as used in Genesis.

 

Many people consider it to be a 24 hour period.

 

That in itself is not necessarily accurate since we don’t know this earth has always turned at the same speed!

What is a day? This is not easy to determine.

We think we know what it means today and we tend to think things have always been as we experience them now. Is this true in this regard?

In fact, science says the earth is slowing at about 1.5 to 2 milliseconds per 100 years right now.

So the "day today" is just a bit longer than it was 100 years ago! How long was it 4.5 billion years ago, the time the Earth started according to modern scientists? [i.e 4,500,000,000 years ago]. 

If the current rate of slow down is assumed to have been constant(at 0.002 seconds per 100years)[also not that likely], it would have been about 90,000 seconds faster or 25 hours faster. How much sense does that make? Not much I would guess! So really, all we know is the day period in ancient times was NOT our 24 hour day!

 

In Genesis we get people living to huge ages (900 years) indicating that the initial time keeping was not really what we know today either.

So shall we be honest and truthful here?

To be truthful we must agree the summary of this is that we cannot really put a clear definition of what was meant by a day, but as a minimum we know it meant a period of time. 

Let’s plan to look at the comparison between day interpreted as "period" and the key periods of the earth’s development as proposed by science and see if they align at all. (If we do this for the bible, and you have some other faith, please also do the same for your creation story. I think you may find the Christian approach tracks pretty well when compared to other spiritual alternatives).

 

However, before we get to that, let us just be clear on one other "fact". The "fact" that the King James Version of the bible is an “old” translation.

The King James Version was translated from original bible languages into English in 1611 A.D.  It was a deliberately biased version intended by the King to promote the Church of England. (It originally included schedules of the church). It was translated a long time ago as well!

To put time that into perspective, Galileo Galilei used the first telescope to see the craters on the moon in 1609. In 1610 he proposed the sun was center of the galaxy and the church told him he was wrong! In 1614 they told him he was not to continue in the lies he was telling!  So, at the time this version of the bible was being written, people thought the earth was the center of the known universe (at least most of them did).

 

Think also of this, that guy, Isaac Newton was not yet born! He was born in 1646. So, lets be honest, science didn’t really exist yet when this "king James" bible (which is incorrectly considered to be a cornerstone of God’s word [since only the originals should have this place]) was written!

 

Based on this, we have to understand the people who translated the sacred texts intto English would have translated it as day not period because that was made the most sense to them. If the first translation of the bible was happening today, perhaps it would be different!

 

So, we have the weight of tradition, added to the weight of historical interpretations that all say the term is day. Most argue that since it has a first, second, third, etc. as qualifier, it could only be a 24 hour day. That’s a weird argument! Anyone who is a sports person will agree that first, second, and third, etc. can refer to periods (like in ice hockey!).

 

So, out of this all, we come to an understanding that "YWM" or "YOM" could mean a day or a period!

Since God can create anything in an instant, it’s interesting he chose not to do so. The time he took could have been days, years, or longer periods. All we know is GOD didn’t create everything at once, and it took time.

 

So now we know something about the “day” argument, we can start looking into what happened in these different periods! But, sorry folk, time is up for today, that will be in a future blog.

 Enjoy your "Day!

 

 

 

Our answer depends on how we view the Olympics. . . 

Do we see it as one human pushing aside all contenders to grab gold? Do we see it as one fortunate nation reigning supreme over all others? Do we want our athletes to win at all cost?

 

If we do, we have failed to understand the Olympics. The Olympics is much more than that, and in fact those very attitudes go against the pure intent of the Olympics!

 

Note, that I use the word “pure” because like all things we as humans set-up and do, it may have had good intent in the beginning, but it has become screwed up by bad politics, bad sportsman, greedy companies and lying.






If we remove these damaging impacts, we come down to some simple concepts that these games were built to engender. . .

 

Concepts like:

                        Honour

                        Peace

                        Struggle for good

                        Caring for the body

                        Improved communication between different communities

 

How many of us know that the games were part of a peace treaty between Sparta and Elis. That they introduced a break from wars between Greeks. these ancients put aside their differences to celebrate human unity. It was initially a month of celebration that over time grew to three months. (we have cut it down because we are to busy to allow that!) It was a move against chaos, planned to improve the human race.

 

When we see this aspect of the Olympics we can shout for joy as we see North and South Korea at the same games.

We don’t get mad when we see that an athlete who is pushed aside by another and fails to achieve their goal, instead of getting angry, simply and silently chooses peace, as a costly and grand gesture that echo’s far louder than the accolades of the medals!

 

It is show in the love, respect and appreciation of athletes for their competitors.

 

It is a lesson that we as Christians would do well to remember since every one of these positive aspects of the “pure” Olympic objectives should be imbedded in the structures of our daily lives.

Like athletes, we should strive for long periods to improve. Like athletes, we will be tested in exceptional circumstances. Like athletes our success or failure is determined in seconds in the way that we apply what we learn and believe in practice.

 

We need to love our neighbour as our self!

Nowhere is this truer than during the Olympics. It’s not important what nation wins the most medals, it is important that all nations win the principles. Nations win most when we all agree that we want to be true to the positive principles of the games.

Today angels will support us, helping and urging us silently to  perform through pain and strain, pushing on with what is supernatural strength to achieve what for those without Holy Spirit  is impossible!

 

Hey, let’s go and have a wonderful winning day!

 

What is pure today?

There is even the question of why should a young man even try to keep his way pure?

As a young guy we get continually abused with false expectations of those around us. We do what we can to find a path through all of this. 

Often it seems as if the “bad boy” image is the one that gets the praise!

Consider what this means. . . if we lift up the “bad boy” image in our culture, we will promote behavior that will over time damage us all. When we start competing on being “bad”, then each attempt drags down our social norm bit by bit. Keep at it long enough and we fail as a society! 

Hardly something that is good for us all is it? No, the “bad boy” image is an illusion. It never ceases to amaze me that woman who chase the “bad boy” types somehow think that when they catch them they can “reform” them. That is probably not going to happen unless God’s grace gets in there somehow! Nope, its far more likely these women will experience what they chased. Great potential of these women having a bad ending to their relationships. Why even go there? 

So what is pure?  

Purity must be measure against a standard. Generally it is how much we avoid having impurities. In biblical terms this is called sin, or in more conventional terms it’s the selfish, ignorant and nasty things we do. So how can a young guy or girl keep their path through life from getting messed up? 

Firstly it is by trying to live a blameless life, and sticking to the guidelines God has given us for life. It is being willing to answer others clearly with what we believe and listen to the views others have.  

It is being able to live honestly, and not hide behind masks! As a Christian man we need to be open and honest. It is rejecting fasle demands on our lives! 

As young men we don’t subscribe to false stereotypes and we understand that we are fully male, fully unique, and have a specific purpose for our lives that no other man can complete. We don’t bow down to the false God’s of superhuman attributes like : superhero strength, ability to take pain and strain without feeling it, not allowing others to see our feelings, being a sex demon, being first at every sporting even, the best hunter in the world, etc. 

Those superhuman attributes can be given to us by God, because he forms our bodies and mind, but normally none of us are superhuman! We are solid strong, dependable, honest, trustworthy men of integrity. This is what women want in the long term. Strong spirits, honest, trustworthiness are far better attributes in forming a strong society and strong family. 

How do we know these are the attributes we need to aim at achieving?  

It’s simple to understand since the sacred writings[1] give us the answer if we search.  

We need to read the writings, trust God, follow the guidelines, speak positively about the great advice God has given us, enjoy the richness of life that comes from doing the right things. It’s simple, but it is complicated at the same time! It’s definitely the best way to live, but until we live this way we don’t really know that. If we carry on living false lives hidden behind lies around our abilities, we will never understand this.  

Isn’t it time to take on life with the power and success God wants us to experience?

"On hearing this, Jesus said, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick."(Matt 9:12 NIV)

This saying of Jesus is interesting in that he is obviously advocating that sick people go to doctors. Jesus was also known for miraculously healing the sick himself. 

Often people claim that miracles were for the past and don't occur now days. In fact, I was a person who openly proclaimed this view for many years! Then I got so ill that no doctor could seem to help. After seeing close to 30 doctors, I was no closer to an answer than before I started. I was loosing weight at a rate of 3 lb's a week and only weighed 135lbs. For a 5ft10inch guy that was not much. I decided I was going to die.

My wife brought the elders of our church to my home to see me and anoint me with oil as the bible says. (I was angry at her for doing this). They prayed for diagnosis and healing. I agreed to permit this, but with little enthusiam. I had decided I was dying and was humouring them.

Then in the next week I was sent to a specialist who diagnosed adult onset coeliac disease. By eating the right foods I would be okay he said. I was delighted, but now couldn't eat wheat, oats, barley and all gluten, so the pasta's and breads were out. So was communion bread!

Within a year I had recovered back to normal weight and was living well. Coeliac disease is incurable so I knew this would be my lifestyle from that point on.

The aspects that bothered me most was that I could not take the communion bread that is part of the Christian celebration. This got me praying for a full healing. Then a lady who had some prophetic ability foretold I would be healed (and at the time I didn't believe in prophecy for today either).

About two years later during communion I felt a spiritual prompting to have communion bread. I chanced it, and there was no negative effect. Confident in healing, I had some bread later in that week, and was immediately ill. For another year I was faced with an amazing experience in that only communion bread didn't make me ill, all other gluten products made me ill.

Then during an eveing where we were praying for a young lady, I felt a spiritual leading to ask her to pray for my healing. She did!

I didn't feel a thing when she prayed but believed I was cured. From that day on I have never had another problem in this regard. I went back to doctors who again checked my gut and told me all was well. The disease had mysteriously cleared up.

So do doctors heal the sick? Yes, and I think Jesus wants us to use the skills he has given them for our benefit. Are there miracles of healing now days? Sure, I am a living example of that and over the years have seen many more of these miracles.

The key thing is that for this occur, we have to trust Jesus. Even when it seems stupid or irrational. I firmly believe that my submission to God's word (even though it was with bad grace) and allowing the elders to pray and anoint me with oil was key to me starting to be healed.

So, lets pray for those that are ill! Also, if people want to anoint you with oil for an illness and pray over you, let them. What harm can come by it? Maybe something good will!

Have a great day!

In Astronomy Magazine – Mysteries of the Universe –Aug 21, 2007 it says the following; (I photographed a bit for you to see, it’s a great magazine! ) By the way the red outline and underlining is mine!

 

 

I like this magazine because it is honest! It says “’What came before the Big Bang?’ is outside the realm of science because it can’t be answered by scientific means!”

 

YES! Honesty at last! That’s the realm of religion, not science! I wish a few scientists would get that! The bible talks about God being there before the Big Bang! Scientists can get to 10^-43 of a second in their information currently, but before that, our science just doesn’t help us!

 

Okay, so let’s take a look at what Genesis 1: 1-2 says:

“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.” 

The key words of formless, empty and deep! For those of us that like logic, we ask ourselves how something we know is  very solid (the Earth) and wet (the oceans) is formless, empty and deep at the same time. How can that be?

 

Can you explain it? Most Christians who don’t believe God used ‘what science explains’ as part of his creation cannot explain this.  It just doesn’t make sense!

 Now let’s consider how the earth formed according to science! 

We can investigate something called a Nebula. No, that’s not a big pimple! It’s a huge dust cloud in space! Probably bigger than we can possibly imagine!

 

“Nebula” comes from Latin for “cloud” . One example of this was the "Pillars of Creation" from the Eagle Nebulae as photographed by the Hubble Space telescope and is on the left. 

One of those stars is the size of our sun so you get the idea of huge!

A planetary nebula, NGC 7293, The Helix Nebula
Credit: NASA, ESA, and C.R. O'Dell (Vanderbilt University)

 is shown to the right.

  

These nebula are considered the birth material of planets like our Earth. In the initial stages, they form clouds of dust, gases, and moisture that spin around a central sun that has come together by gravity in the center of the dust cloud, initially hidden from view but as time goes on becoming visible by blowing away the dust due to its solar radiation. The dust grains clump together due to gravity and finally make up asteroid like planetesimals. The whole cloud tends to start to spin a bit as this happens. These collide and slowly the clump gathers more and more and a planet grows into being. When it gets big enough, the pressure of gravity moulds it into a spherical shape.

 

That cloud is basically empty. We would call it part of the vacuum of space. Lots of emptiness! It also doesn’t really have edges or a form. Like a fog bank doesn’t have a form. It is sort of there! Hard to say where the edges are right? Then inside the cloud is water and the components of water. That’s where the oceans came from after all! So we could say that if you could move over the formless surface, you would be moving over the deep as well!

 

That’s probably as far as I want to go for this part of the writing. So, here we have the dust clouds, having all the building blocks of our atmospheres and oceans distributed huge clouds of dust and gas in space.

 

If you had to explain this to a child, you couldn’t explain it the way I just have, could you?

 

Think of this! Simple man had a similar problem! God also wanted simple ancient man to remember it and be able to faithfully write about it for future generations. Now my explanation has no hope in that regard! God was smarter! He wrote it down as:

 Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. 

Isn’t that a simple explanation of this creation event I explained? It’s short, to the point and memorable as well! Trust God to speak truth with simplicity so that we can all get it (even though it would take men almost 4000years and lots of copying of those words before they could really understand them).

 

Can you think of any other creation story that explains Earths creation as simply and elegantly as this , without making up stories! One that fits our scientific known theories! Our bible is magnificent!

The noise of life clamors in the corridor of our lives, and as the crowds move through this busy corridor, some coming alongside us and some passing us by, the jostling that occurs for resources, happiness, support and direction cause us to bump into others now and then, whether we want to or not!  

This is part of living life to the fullest! It’s the reason for us humans having politics and persuasion. It is the opportunity to do, or not to do! We either immerse ourselves in this flow of humanity, or we cease to exist, becoming modern hermits in an evolving world. 

Unfortunately sometimes we end up colliding with others as their differences in opinion, attitudes, and needs, either change or threaten to change our path.  

The amount which we are flexible will dictate how much we bump into others! Each person decides for themselves how many gentle collisions are to be accepted as the norm, and how many are too much! The attitude, attention and approach taken in each collision influence our own happiness and health.  

The result of some of the collisions may be anger! For some of us, we just let things go, others don’t, and in some cases we cannot since the approach is too direct or we feel has too much of a consequence for those following or passing us by. 

When we collide, there is also a choice to be made. Blame for the collision can be ascribed as there are distinct rules against which this judgment is made. Sometimes people just seem to deliberately step into our path and we cannot avoid them. They are wrong in this case and in this case we probably blame them for failing to follow the rules. 

How can we be sure we are blameless? To ascribe blame, there needs to be a basis of agreement or disagreement. We need to have a right, or at least think we have a right, to a piece of that corridor. 


In walking down a corridor there are many rules which we adhere to without thinking! Here are some of them, but if we think hard, we could come out with a lot more: 

• We should keep to the walking side ( e.g. right in America and many other countries, left in Britain and another group of countries),
• We should not stop and block it for others,
• We should respect others by wearing clothes and not rubbing our naked body parts against others(e.g. this is an unwritten law in jungle paths in primitive areas),
• We shouldn’t spit, or excrete bodily fluids where others may be discomforted by having to deal with them,
• Sitting down in the corridor blocking flow is frowned upon,
• Shouting is not appreciated as it disturbs others,
• We walk on the floor using gravity (A corridor in space would look very different wouldn’t it),
• We need friction, we must not covered the floor with slippery stuff,
• We should not touch others inappropriately,
• We need to respect that each person has a personal space around them into which we should not intrude!

 The rules are basically true in all parts of the world!  

They are true whether any one person agrees to them or not.  

Everyone knows or develops these rules once they develop corridors of one type or another! Notice that it doesn’t matter whether we agree with the rules or not!
 
Contravene them and you are considered to blame for messing up the lives of others in the corridor! 

Life is like that as well!  

Whether we like it or not, there are established rules for living together. 

Christians believe that the sacred writings reveal God’s way for us to live our lives together. Living in this way reduces the collisions of life and helps us live better with others. It results in more contentment for us and others! 

Now if we assume that the Christians are correct and they actually do have a relationship with the maker of the ruler of our universe (I know many of us have difficulty with this. I respect that and know your choice is acceptance or not J ). 

However, if God knows the best rules for living, then by following them, Christians can be blameless! 

This is why the bible says  
“Blessed are those who live without blame.
       They live in keeping with the law of the Lord.”[1] 

So what does blessed mean? It’s a word that we don’t use anymore! “Blessed”, it sounds so antiquated and historical. 

Really “blessed” means to be considered special, well liked, favored. It is part of being a person who brings happiness to another (in this case God) who in turn showers special attention on the “blessed” on! 

So God considers us as able to get special attention if we live without blame and we do this by following the rules of life God has revealed to us in the stuff we call his “law”.  

Is law bad?  

Bad laws would be bad! However those laws that follow the course of life that God established are good. They are the ones that say we should keep to a certain side of the corridor, not block it, respect the space of others, etc. Without them pain would result. With them we don’t remove pain, we just reduce it to a minimum and increase our happiness and contentment to a maximum. 

That does not mean we don’t oppose bad behavior that contravenes the laws of life. It just means that we can do so in a blameless way! 

So, I plan to live as blameless a life as I can! To do this I plan to live within God’s guidance with as clear a conscience as possible. I know that the rules are there to help me, and as much as I would like to think I know better, history has shown that the biblical rules properly applied result in a better life for all! 

So are we aiming at living a blameless life, or do we think we can disobey life’s rules and still be happy?  

Who are we kidding if we think we can disobey God’s rules? Ourselves or God?