Here's Chapter ONE

Hi Everyone
Thanks so much for your feedback from the Preface and Introduction.

I have now posted Chapter 1 for you to read and review for me.
It is at http://users.ncable.net.au/~barrytatt/C1.pdf

Some of it will be familiar to you if you've been reading the blogsite regularly.
And that will be true for other chapters as well. 
The blogsite is used by me to try out ideas on you and get your feedback in small bits before those bits become parts of a chapter.

So your candid feedback is always appreciated on the blogsite as well as the on draft chapters that are now being posted at ncable.net.au.

I am hoping to get the draft of Chapter 2 ready for you to review by the end of the month.
But life is so busy when you've retired   ;-)    ...... but that's my aim.

Thanks again.
Blessings, Barry

The Law of Gravitation

(Haven't decided whether to put this into Chapter 1 - "God Loves Us" or into Chapter 4 - "Jesus is the Saviour of the World".  As always your opinions, views, criticisms are most welcome.)

I enjoy reading science. 
Although my science degree (from 50 years ago) is in Physics, I like to keep in touch with where mankind is up to in appreciating and understanding God's wonderful creation in other areas as well - like chemistry, biology, geology and astronomy.
So please indulge me and let me digress a little to talk some science.

Newton's Universal Law of Gravitation states that any two objects exert a gravitational force of attraction on each other.
The direction of that force is from the centre of one object to the centre of the other.
The size of the force is determined by the size of the objects and their distance apart.
For any two particular objects the force on one is the same as the force on the other, but the effect of that force will be more visible on the smaller object.

Let me illustrate by considering the earth and me.
We attract each other with a force of about 800 “force units” (in the metric measurement system).
If I step off the top of a building, remove the “obstacle” between me and the earth, this force causes us to come together quite rapidly. 
But which one of us does the moving?
The force of 800 force units is not enough to get the earth moving towards me, but it sure moves me towards the earth.
So, small objects will move towards, and may eventually collide with, large objects because the force of attraction between them gets the smaller one moving more easily.

So why this digression?
I knew you'd be wondering by now.

I see the law of love working in the same way as the law of gravitation.
They are both universal laws put in place by God - one in the physical realm and one in the spiritual.
In the universal law of love, God is the big object and mankind is the small one. 
There is a love force of attraction between God and us whose direction is from the centre or heart of God to our centres or hearts.
That force is always acting so that when obstacles between us and God are reduced or removed, we will start moving towards God - and will eventually meet him, be united with him.

Jesus referred to this when he said that he would draw all people to himself.
It might take a while, it might need lots of obstacles to be removed, maybe reduced bit by bit, but eventually all people will meet him and be united with him.

Love to hear from you on this (or anything else for that matter)  Barry

Peter's Personal Experience

Peter, James and John formed an executive of sorts of the disciples that closely followed Jesus when He was on earth and they shared some very special times and ministry experiences with Him.

John instinctively knew God's love for him - he wrote about it often.
Peter knew it too, but had to go through a dreadful experience to be sure of it.

Not long after declaring that Jesus was the Messiah and watching the crowds celebrating Jesus' entry into Jerusalem, Peter assured Jesus that no matter what happened there, he would stand by his Messiah, even to the point of death.

Disastrously, Peter did not keep his promise.  He denied even knowing Jesus when the real pressure was on.  In fact he denied knowing Jesus three times - hardly a careless once-off slip. 

Jesus was crucified and buried and three days later rose from the dead.

According to Mark's record, three women went to Jesus' tomb and discovered Jesus no longer there. An angel told them He had risen and that they were to go and report this to the disciples and Peter.

Have you ever wondered why Peter was singled out?  He was already included in "the disciples" the angel referred to, so why was special mention made of him?

I think the angel was saying, "Tell the disciples everything is OK.  Jesus is risen.   And especially tell Peter, his failure to stand by Jesus has had no permanent effect.  Tell him it's all OK."

John recorded the time later on when Jesus personally caught up with Peter.  Three times Jesus asked Peter if he loved Him and three times Jesus reinstated and recommissioned Peter to ministry in the future - once for each time Peter denied knowing Him.

That ministry commenced a few weeks later on the Day of Pentecost.  Peter's first sermon in the new Christian era, accompanied by a spectacular show of God's presence and power, saw God adding 3000 to those being saved at that time.

Regardless of Peter's previous performance, Jesus showed He still loved him, and was prepared to trust the beginnings of the Christian era to his leadership. 

God loves us even when we fail Him.  God is faithful to us even when we are not faithful to him. 

The Bible shows us over and over that God is always in the reinstating, restoring and recommissioning business.  Even for those who have previously denied Him.

That's the sort of God I can worship and serve.
Blessings, Barry

The Traffic Cop

I am driving home enjoying the afternoon sun as I return from a fairly normal day at the office.  Occasionally I glance at the speedo, check my mirrors and anticipate what may be ahead, but generally I am pretty relaxed and maybe a little carefree in my daily driving habits.

But today, on one of those glances in the rear vision mirror, I notice a traffic cop has appeared from nowhere and pulled into my lane - right behind me.

My demeanour and sense of peace immediately changes.  My heart beats a bit faster and questions race through my head.

How long has he been there?
Is my speed above what it should be?
Have I changed lanes without signalling?
Have I failed to give way to another car that had right-of-way?

My driving habits change.  I am now more careful. I check my speedo and mirrors more frequently. My level of attention has upped significantly.  My concentration is on high alert. I am now "back at work" rather than taking a leisurely, relaxing drive home.

Why have all these changes happened? 
Simple - I'm afraid. 
I am driven by the fear of doing something wrong and the consequences that will bring.

Even though I know the cop is there to keep me and others on the road safe, am I endeared to him?  Do I love him?
Not likely.
The best I can say is that I respect his position and authority.  
But more truthfully, I fear him and fear what he can do to me.

And, O, how relieved I am when I see him disappear from my field of view, having turned off at the intersection I just crossed - heart rate back to normal, sitting more relaxed behind the wheel, level of concentration back to leisure level..... phew!

That's how many people relate to God.  It was the norm in Old Testament times, and too often the norm today, even amongst Christians.
We fear God and what He can do to us because of the mistakes we have made, continue to make, and will probably make in the future.

In one regional city where I lived, I got to know a traffic cop really well through business and church connections.  I would see him on the roads quite often and sometimes he would be in my lane travelling right behind me.
My driving skills made the usual improvements when he was around so that I wouldn't do anything wrong.

But it wasn't because I feared him or feared what he could do to me.  I just didn't want to embarrass him or give him the unpleasant task of having to make any hard decisions about me.
I respected his position and authority as much as any other cop in town, but I cared about him and didn't want to make his life or job more difficult because of his relationship with me.

It was interesting to note that although my driving improved when he was around, my heart rate didn't increase or my sense of peace didn't evaporate.  I was in the same relaxed state as when there the road was free of traffic cops, just my attention to my driving improved.

It was easy to see that I performed better on the road because I loved him and cared for him, not because I feared him.  Same result on the road - but for entirely different reasons.
My love for him removed the need for me to fear him.  Fear just wasn't relevant.  Driving improvement occured without it.

Fearing God has us behaving better, and that was the point of the law for those who lived under it in Old Testament times.  It was better for each individual and for society as a whole.
But Jesus came to  abolish that law and to show us that God is love and desires a relationship of love with each of us.

If we love him we will live the way he desires us to.
And there will be no room or need for fear in that relationship.
In fact the Bible says that perfect love drives out fear [1 John 4 : 18 ].

How much better is it to realise that God really does love us and invites us into a relationship of love with Him - better than living in fear that God might pounce on us when we don't meet the full requirements of the law.

Blessings, Barry

Death is Mankind's Friend

To some people God's statement that “the soul who sins will die,” as recorded by the Old Testament prophet Ezekiel, and the apostle Paul's statement that “the wages of sin is death,” as recorded in the New Testament, are just further examples of God's nasty side.

What a spoil sport! What a harsh tyrant God is!

If we look at these through the lens of love rather than the lens of punishment and vengeance we again see God's good side, God's love.

After Adam and Eve sinned, God banished them from the garden so they could not eat from the tree of life in their sinful condition. God did not want them to live forever in such a fractured relationship with Him. Instead they were to die, be removed from the garden, and eventually from the earth, until Jesus had come to earth and paid for their sin, and they could be restored to their original relationship with God.

Strange as it might seem, death is mankind's friend. 

Those who lived BC left the earth at the end of their lifetimes and waited in hades for Jesus to deal with their sin at Calvary. 

Those of us who live AD are headed in one of two directions on our death.

Those who belong to Christ immediately move to the New Jerusalem, “my Father's house”, as Jesus called it.

Those who do not belong to Christ go to hades as their AD predecessors did, until their resurrection to face judgement and rehabilitation at the end of the ages.

Either way God's love for His children will prevail and His children will be reconciled to Him in the end.

Death is the doorway into hades and ultimately to life or directly to life, depending on whether or not people belong to Christ in their time on this planet.

What do you think of this?

Blessings, Barry

The Parable of the Wise and Loving Parent

The big day has arrived. Your son has just turned 6 and you arrange to give him an exciting birthday party in the back yard. 

During the games and activities your child makes a real pest of himself. He is a poor loser when someone else wins a competition. He has to have the first piece of cake going around, and the biggest piece at that. He shows extreme displeasure with some of the presents he has been given. He is a pain and is beginning to arouse anger and frustration in his guests. The party is ready to explode.

Do you leave him continue this way, and risk ruining the party, and worse still, risk losing all his friends?

Of course not.

You quietly take him from the yard and give him some time out in his room where others can't see him and where he can not make things any worse, for himself or for his friends.

Were you angry with your son? Most definitely.

Did you still love your son? Most definitely.

So, what will you do next?

After a certain length of time, you visit your son, help him understand what has been happening and its present and possible future consequences, and help him change his attitude and future behaviour and to see the potential benefits that would come from these changes. 

Those changes would also have the benefit of removing your anger and being reconciled to your son, moving on in harmony with him.

God watched on as his children behaved badly in the days of Noah. He loved them, yet was angry with their behaviour. He decided to remove them from the earth and give them some time out in hades, where others couldn't see them.

Was God angry with them? Did He make a judgement about their behaviour? Did He destroy them, remove them from the earth? Did He place them in hades? Did He love them? Did He visit them later in their room, in hades? Did He talk to them about how things could be better for them in the future?

Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.

If we can do these things well as sinful, earthly parents, how much better is God as the most loving parent of all at restoring his wayward and badly behaving children and having them lead a life that is pleasing and reconciled to Him?

Blessings, Barry

A Savage Monster?

Many people genuinely doubt God's love for all mankind and cite examples from the Old Testament to demonstrate how savage God appears to have been in the past, and therefore is likely to be in the future.

Of all the examples used, the destruction of the whole world's population, less eight people, during the flood at the time of Noah is the most common. How can God be a God of love and yet destroy everyone? How can God, who is love, wipe the earth clean of almost all human beings in one fell swoop?

These are reasonable questions which many people, including Christians, find difficult to answer in a satisfactory way.

If we look at God's dealings with mankind through the lens of love, rather than through the lens of anger and punishment and vengeance, we will see a different picture than many suppose.

You might hear a conversation between a person in authority and an alleged offender, or between a parent and a child, include words like, “I don't want you to say another word, you are in deep enough already.”

In movies or television dramas we might hear a lawyer or attorney advising clients in a similar way so as not to risk providing more evidence against themselves or painting themselves in a worse light.

Wise parents often advise their children to stay away from situations that would appeal to their weaknesses or make them susceptible to going astray.

People who are alcoholics are advised to not even have one alcoholic drink; people who are compulsive gamblers are advised to stay away from places where gambling happens; children who are more followers than leaders are advised to stay away from those who would have a detrimental influence on their lives.

It is wisdom and compassion that leads people to give this sort of advice to those they love.

Given that those of us who leave this planet at the end of our lives unreconciled to God will need to be judged and spend time in a correction facility at the end of the ages, it was kind and merciful of God to prematurely remove from the planet those of Noah's generation who had made the world corrupt and full of violence before they could do even worse and be in need of an even more extreme and painful makeover.

And where did they go? And what happened to them there? That's a wonderful story we will discuss in chapter 5. (If you've already caught a glimpse of the theme of this book, or you have peeked ahead, you will know that the result was a very good one - much better than they, or any of us, deserves.)

But for the moment those God destroyed were removed from the planet to prevent them making things worse for themselves or leaving them where they could not resist the temptation to continue in their sinful ways.

This “clearing of the earth” was not the doings of a savage, vengeful God; it was the action of a loving and merciful God towards those he loves, not unlike that of a loving parent caring for his or her wayward children.

Barry

Let's do some thinking

Hi Guys and Gal
Lying in bed this morning, I was thinking about how to make it easier for you to generate some discussion on the blogsite (assuming you might want to) while I am otherwise engaged these next few weeks.
Since all of you are parents and have raised at least one child, I thought I would pose a series of questions that you might consider, and hopefully some discussion material might pop out at the end.

Do you love your kids?
Do/did you ever discipline them?

Why?
What is/was the purpose of your discipline?
How severe is/was your discipline?
Does/did it ever stop?
When?
Does/did it achieve its purpose?

Does God love his children (the people who populate his earth)?
Does he ever discipline them?
Why?
What is the purpose of His discipline?
How severe is His discipline?
Does it ever stop?
When?
Does it achieve its purpose?


What Bible stories, parables, verses might support your answers?
What Bible stories, parables, verses might challenge your answers?

Use the Post a Comment link below to share the thoughts that pop out of your considering this.