What Are the Benefits of Being Grateful?

What Are the Benefits of Being Grateful?

by | Sep 28, 2020 | Apologetics, Gratefulness, John Tarr

What Are the Benefits of Being Grateful? 

When I had set out to write this article, I already had some idea of my limitations about this subject of being grateful. Gratitude has not come easily to me.

I have never really had a mind set that would help me to think this way. You see, I was an atheist until I was 30 years old so being grateful was an abstract thought for most of my life. If I worked hard and fulfilled my dreams my accomplishments had nothing to do with anything or anyone else but me.

Once I became a Christian that changed but I was still not in a good mindset of being grateful. Maybe I expressed gratitude when I prayed but not in my daily dealings with life, and certainly not when I was angry, in a bad mood or depressed.

A very good friend of mine opened this bag of worms (bag of gratefulness) in a phone call a month ago. He said he suffered from sadness or depression most of his life and was trying to kick that habit.

As we talked, I think God spoke to me and said, “How can you be sad or depressed when you are grateful?” I told my friend this and we talked at some length about the subject.

A few weeks later my friend Randy was leading the Men’s Hope Group at our church that I belong to and his subject for the night was “being grateful”.

He opened the discussion for everyone to participate in.

Listening to the different men explain their thoughts was eye opening but one thing that was repeated many times was that the other men were also having the same problem of being grateful as I was.

My cousin Ellen said to me when I told her I was writing a blog on this topic.

“We think of our struggles as punishments. Could it be that God is trying to help us grow beyond our finite perspectives? Gratitude during our trials helps build character from God’s perspective.”  

“We Think of Our Struggles As Punishments

That response from her was very powerful and hit the nail on the head.

I then decided to contact family and friends and find out their thoughts on being grateful. I wondered if, perhaps, we all could learn from each other.

Below are many of the comments they wrote me when I asked them “What Are the Benefits of Being Grateful”

What Are the Benefits of Being Grateful?

“Blessing & being content!!!!” — Rosie

“Gratitude makes you believe you have a responsibility to give back to the others. Entitlement makes you believe others have a responsibility to give back to you.”

AND

“You could also argue all worship is a form of gratitude for what God has done or is doing. At the very least, gratitude is one of if not the primary vehicle of worship.” — Justin

“Gratefulness is a gift from God. It rewires the human brain for good, lifts the spirits, cheers the heart, cancels greed and entitlement mentality and brings a sense of peace and well-being to one’s soul. Gratitude acknowledges the goodness of God.” — Randy

“Being grateful to GOD should in turn make you more humble and then turn into obedience to His will in your life.” — Erik

“Gratitude is an open awareness of our finite abilities and God’s ultimate authority and sovereignty. It is the recognition of God’s renewed mercies every day. Gratitude is also having the ability to pause and give thanks for all of God’s creation both large and small, and our interactions within it.  It is a form of surrender and appreciation of God’s influence and work in our lives. Gratitude means taking nothing for granted, or seeking from an entitlement perspective, as no living thing is worthy or deserving of God’s love and mercy, yet He gives it freely. Every day we have the opportunity to be grateful for each breathe of life we are given, and the fact that God sustains all things.” — Ellen

“The more grateful we are, the more people see Jesus shine in you. The more grateful we are, the joy of the Lord is in us. A grateful heart is a humble heart.” — Connie

“Gratefulness reflects appreciation. It reflects humility. It acknowledges the giver. It also reflects graciousness. Who doesn’t like the person who lives their life from a place of gratefulness?” — Lynwood

What Are the Benefits of Being Grateful?

“Gratitude promotes a feeling of kindness and love for the giver and receiver. In other words, when someone gives you a gift or shows you kindness, you both walk away with a warm fuzzy feeling in your tummy.” — Tom

“Being Grateful, helps keep you humble and thankful for everything and everyone in your life!” — Shaun

“Becoming grateful – or looking around for things to appreciate & be thankful for – brings incredible amounts of joy & peace & fulfillment, where there used to be misery, cynicism, restlessness.” — Ariel

“When you are feeling truly grateful, it pushes all sinful attitudes out. There’s no room for feeling bitterness, covetousness, anger, jealousy etc. —  It re-focuses our hearts on the gifts that God has blessed us with and helps us to truly love God and the people He has placed in our lives.” — Candace

“The main benefit of being grateful for me is to concentrate on something that is good in my life and not think so much of what is negative.” — Kathy 

“Being grateful….

  • Feelings of dissatisfaction with what you have.
  • Lends to being a more forgiving person.
  • Improves appreciation for the blessings frequently taken for granted
  • Reduces stress and improves your health.
  • Grateful people are more cheerful.
  • Grateful people handled success better.
  • Being more concerned for others than yourself is a byproduct of gratefulness
  • Grateful persons are a joy to be around
  • Being grateful supports other fruits of the Spirit
  • Grateful people are less condemning of themselves and others
  • Grateful people are not bitter people”
  • — Steve

“Being grateful is one of the few times you get to understand the value of anything, if you are never grateful then you can never understand what it is you have or what someone else has done for you. It means your outlook on life will most likely be pitted against you instead of for you. Being grateful provides not only a happier moment but a much stronger and durable guide to happiness, don’t we all want to be happy? Then we should all also be grateful no matter how little we feel we have.” — Jacob

“Benefits of being grateful is that it helps you to be happy and content with what you have. If you are always looking at what somebody else has that is better than what you have, you will not be satisfied. It keeps you from allowing yourself to be happy.” — Jason 

What Are the Benefits of Being Grateful?

“I can’t see God clearly unless I am grateful. I am only truly grateful when I am humbled. I am only ever truly humbled when I recognize the depravity of my heart. I only see the depravity of my heart when I am transparent and in community. When I am transparent and in community, I see my need for God which brings me right back to being grateful!” — Paul

“Hope in the future is built on a foundation of recognizing our blessings and being grateful for them.” — Pam 

“One benefit of being grateful is an attitude change. If you are grateful your attitude is positive, and it will affect those around you.” — Freya

“Early in our marriage we sat under a much-loved pastor who constantly admonished his flock, “Have an attitude of gratitude,” and he consistently modeled that in his own life and speech. Another good friend speaks of the difference between an “abundance mentality” and a “scarcity mentality.” When we recognize that God’s provision for us really is enough, we will respond with gratitude, and that gratitude begets generosity.” — Rhonda

“Everything I have is a gift from God, my life, my family, my next breath. In living with this knowledge, I have peace that God provides.” — Jim

“Some of the benefits of being grateful: a more positive attitude and outlook, and helps my relationships go better too.” — Jack

“When thinking of this I was overwhelmed at the benefit of having a grateful heart. The first thing that came to mind was the overwhelming feeling of peace. A peace that only God can give and is the One to whom having a grateful heart belongs… His constant love and care in my life is only a portion of the gratefulness because the benefits are for me, too numerous to count. Hope being one of them. Joy and a sense of well-being. Sensing His constant care and concern for my life always keeps me in a mindset of gratitude on a daily basis, which for me, is life sustaining. I am so GRATEFUL for the benefits of GRATITUDE as it is also from the very Heart of God.” — Monica

“Being grateful stings the devil and takes him out of the equation.” — Keith

 

What Are the Benefits of Being Grateful?

What Are the Benefits of Being Grateful?

I personally thank each and every one of you that participated with this important question. I am Very Grateful (I knew I would get that in there at some point) that you took time out of your busy schedule to sit and reflect on this topic and then send me your answers.

I know many of the quotes are similar, but people did not have access to what others have said until now.

One last thought as I close.

I am personally grateful to the Christian God that created me and that He has the character qualities that He has, and that Jesus exhibited throughout His life. Loving, forgiving, humility, compassion, gentleness, self-control, patience, obedience, honesty and prayerful are just a few. 10 qualities of Jesus.

His amazing patience with me before I accepted Jesus into my heart and also the years afterward.

All my gratefulness radiates from Him.

If after reading this blog, if you would like to contribute to this discussion, please comment below so everyone can see what you have to say or maybe go to our Facebook page for a lively discussion once this blog is posted.

This is what Two Measures Foolish is all about—digging deeper into the things of God and our world that He made for us to live and grow in.

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What Are the Benefits of Being Grateful?

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Fear: Coronavirus and Climate Change

Fear: Coronavirus and Climate Change

by | Mar 19, 2020 | Apologetics, Atheism, John Tarr

Fear: Coronavirus and Climate Change

It seems like every time I turn around our news media is promoting a new thing to fear.

Now that we are neck-deep in the Coronavirus scare (real or otherwise) the news media has 24 hours of coverage from all over the world. Statistics are showing how many people have gotten the virus to how many have died with many showing supermarkets’ hoarding of food and of all things, toilet paper.

The US government, as well as local towns, are putting their people on lockdown and are told not to meet in large groups. Movies, restaurants, coffee houses, as well as churches, are being closed for a time.

I do not remember a period that so much fear emanating from the far reaches of the globe and right here in the United States.

What has happened?

Social media has had a great impact. The speed at which the news travels is another one along with the harsh realities of political discourse.

Over the years I have watched the Christian culture crumble in our country, but it has also disintegrated all across planet earth. I do not mean to say God is not working in different places BIG time like in China, Africa, and South America but in places that Christianity stuck its flag of salvation through Jesus Christ in past centuries is now history.

The gospel has become week and almost unrecognizable in a place like the USA and Europe. The very places that Christianity sprang from to reach the rest of the world through missions and heavy-duty reading of scripture and the many powerful preachers and teachers of God’s Word have dwindled.

The Bible is not being read with as much passion as it once was. Certain aspects of God’s Word have been jettisoned like the teaching of Hell and Homosexuality and many other parts of scripture that people have deemed old and outdated in our modern-day. Human opinions have trumped God’s perspective.

Fear: Coronavirus and Climate Change

Our churches are a confused bunch in many ways.

We have been sucked into this present culture because it seems to be more exciting. Our worship has become a performance-based and entertaining as you would encounter at a rock concert.

The preachers are afraid of talking about hard subjects like hell and homosexuality for fear of alienating the people that sit in their pews or criticism from the outside world

God’s Word has become just another bunch of words to be endured and Jesus is just another smart holy man that lived many years ago.

Who needs God when we have science?

Many Christian much less the rest of the culture we live in really do not believe much of the bible is the inspired word of God. Evolution is where many think life sprang from and not God’s intervention in our world. Most people do not have an understanding of evolution itself but blindly follow what atheistic scientist say.

To this day scientists have not produced life from non-life in laboratories with all the perfect conditions. Many of these scientists have come to believe life itself is just too complex to come from the primordial ooze so they have come up with alternative idea’s like the multi-universe and seeding of life from space.

It does not stop them from promoting alien life somewhere else in the cosmos or that we have been visited by these beings. Every other day we read in the news how astronomers have discovered a new planet that has all the right conditions for life.

I had to come to terms with what the Bible said where mankind came from in Genesis. How could I believe in the rest of scripture and what Jesus said in the New testament if I did not believe where we came from in the first place. My whole belief system would unravel.

Fear not!

Fear is the single most driving force in our lives. When you take God out of your life, fear can be an overwhelming. You are left to your own devices to figure everything out. You begin to put your faith into humans, governments or even yourself to figure it all out.

Fear in the news media has not just come from this Coronavirus but Climate Change before that. We needed the right president to deal with racism or homophobia. How many people became so fear-based after the 2016 election that it seemed like it changed politics in the country overnight.

Abortion has become the word and practice of the day. It is if God made a mistake by having a human growing inside of another and we need to correct his mistake because as all-knowing humans, we know better.

When you take God out of a culture fear begins to reign. Humans are very short-sighted and do not have a basic understanding of unintended consequences.

Fear: Coronavirus and Climate Change

How can we?  

We do not know the future nor were we around when God made it ALL and put it into motion. We have no idea what His intentions are. The one place that He spelled it all out for us to have even the smallest understanding has been rejected or given a distant second place on the self.

Our modern culture has become increasingly godless. It believes that if you believe in God then you are believing in a fairy tail. We know better because we have come to understand that humans do not have the answers deep in our hearts. Just look at the history of mankind. The Coronavirus shouts it out to us.

Fear not!

“Fear not!” is the most repeated command in the Bible. It’s been said that there are 365 “Fear not” in the Bible — one “Fear not” for every day of the year! … God doesn’t want us to go a single day without hearing his word of comfort: “Fear not!”

I wrote an article about fear and climate change a couple of months ago that you might like to read that goes into depth on this subject. Climate Change: Is God A Fool.

Like I said at the end of that blog:

Do not get all caught up in the hysteria and fear. Do not let mere humans with their narrow incite and opinions shout over God’s voice of reason.

He created you and me and has a hope and future for each one of us. He also created this time and space called a universe and is not surprised by anything. He knew it would come down to this in the end.

Do not let fear rule you!

Jesus walked on this planet, died and rose again so we could have a future.

That you can take to the bank!

 

Fear: Coronavirus and Climate Change

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Climate Change: Is God A Fool?

Climate Change: Is God A Fool?

by | Mar 2, 2020 | Apologetics, John Tarr, Science

Climate Change: Is God A Fool?

With talk about Climate Change raging all around us and hysteria everywhere you look, several things have come to my mind as a believer in an all-knowing entity that created us and this universe. Yes, I am a Christian.

The three main attributes or characteristics of God.

Theologians say is that He is Omnipotent, Omniscient and Omnipresent. Without these characteristics God is not God at all is He? Are not all three of these essential to be the Intelligent Designer of this universe.

What These Terms Mean

 

Omnipotence means all-powerful. Monotheistic theologians regard God as having supreme power. This means God can do what he wants. It means he is not subject to physical limitations like man is. Being omnipotent, God has power over wind, water, gravity, physics, etc. God’s power is infinite, or limitless.

Omniscience means all-knowing. God is all all-knowing in the sense that he is aware of the past, present, and future. Nothing takes him by surprise. His knowledge is total. He knows all that there is to know and all that can be known.

Omnipresence means all-present. This term means that God is capable of being everywhere at the same time. It means his divine presence encompasses the whole universe. There is no location where He does not inhabit. This should not be confused with pantheism, which suggests that God is synonymous with the universe itself; instead, Omnipresence indicates that God is distinct from the universe, but inhabits the entirety of it. He is everywhere at once.

Of these three it is Omniscience that I want to concentrate on when it comes to Climate Change. As a Christian, I believe God created this universe with only human beings in mind. All the rest is for us to use and consume. Not just on this planet and solar system but all of what is going on in the far reaches of this enormous universe impacts us directly also.

Climate Change: Is God A Fool?

Climate Change: Is God A Fool?

 

When God pulled the trigger at one point in time through the ‘Big Bang’ or ‘Cosmological Singularity’, He put into motion all the ingredients that human life on this blue planet would need to thrive.

It does not matter if you are a young earther who believes the universe is only 7,000 to 10,000 years old or if you are an old earther that believes the universe is 13.8 billion years old, the dynamics are still the same.

Does God have Omniscience and that He is an all-knowing Intelligent Designer?

Would He have had complete understanding of what we would need from the beginning of creation until the end?

Do you think this all loving God would have put all these different minerals on this planet for humans to have access to knowing that we would kill ourselves off by using them?

What kind of God is that?

When it comes to fossil fuel of coal, oil and gas that he would have the earth go through a period that all these giant plants and animals like dinosaurs would live and die so we would have these ingredients to use later in man’s development and then kill ourselves off by using too much and causing a greenhouse effect?

Maybe God did not know about the production of carbon when burning fossil fuel? Maybe it took him by surprise? How about the burning of wood that humans have done since the begging of time to warm ourselves and cook our food? Look at all the carbon that released?

I suppose you could say the same thing about the nuclear age and creating nuclear bombs. I remember the fear that swept this country during the Cuban missile crisis. Teachers made us dive under school desks when the alarm went off.

 By all rights from many stories I have read that mankind should have killed himself off by now in a nuclear holocaust or war. Did the nuclear age take him by surprise? Does He not have control of that also? 

The hysteria around climate change has become so acute by many people that I question if they believe in God at all. The fear has become so overwhelming that it is driving many individuals to almost lose their reasoning.

Has Climate Change become their God?

Human beings have such a need to be in complete control over everything and when they do not, fear erupts like a volcano.

We see that in our daily lives when we lose a job, how are we going to pay our bills, someone close to us gets very sick or we have a car wreck. How are we going to deal with it?

Does God only deal with individuals but on a large scale like the survival of the planet and all life on it, is beyond His control?

Climate Change: Is God A Fool?

What does it say about fear in scripture?

“Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” ~ Philippians 4:6-7

Does that say do not be anxious about anything except climate change or nuclear bombs?

“Peace is what I leave with you; it is my own peace that I give you. I do not give it as the world does. Do not be worried and upset; do not be afraid.” ~ John 14:27

Our culture has eliminated God out of everything so it no wonder they are terrified of the future and what it will bring.

They call Christians anti science but is that true or are they just pushing their godless agenda with their small-minded opinions. They like to accuse Christians of being out of touch and fools. Fools to believe in a Creator of the universe and not godless evolution.

Who and what is really behind fear and anxiety?

“For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of [a]the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.” – Ephesians 6:12

So, what does this tell us about this present age we live in?

That the culture that we live in does not have a clue about what is really going on this planet. Does it seem like we really have a handle on any of this? Ask yourself if it all seems like its grinding to halt. You can feel it. God’s Word confirms it.

God gave us all an owner’s manual in the Bible and also what is coming in the end times.

“Fear not!” is the most repeated command in the Bible. In fact, it’s been said that there are 365 “Fear nots” in the Bible — one “Fear not” for every day of the year! … God doesn’t want us to go a single day without hearing his word of comfort: “Fear not!”

Do not get all caught up in the hysteria and fear of climate change. Do not let mere humans with their narrow incite and opinions shout over God’s voice of reason.

He created you and I and has a hope and future for each one of us. He also created this time and space called a universe and is not surprised by anything. He knew it would come down to this in the end.

Do not let fear rule you!

Jesus walked on this planet, died and rose again so we could have a future.

That you can take to the bank!

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Climate Change: Is God A Fool?

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What About Those Who Have Never Heard of the Gospel of Christ?

What About Those Who Have Never Heard of the Gospel of Christ?

by | Feb 12, 2020 | Apologetics, Atheism, John Tarr

What about Those Who Have Never Heard of the Gospel or Christ?

I do not know about you but this this is a question that I have asked since I became a Christian. I know many others have asked the same thing but never really got a satisfactory answer.

Until now.

Dr. William Lane Craig, who is philosopher and theologian, has a short 5-minute video from Reasonable Faith that you can view at the bottom of this blog, but I will attempt to lay out his article in print here.

When Christians claim that Jesus is the only way to God, an objection is often raised: If Jesus is the only way to God, what about those who’ve never heard of Jesus? Is God unfair?

Are some people just unlucky – born at the wrong time and place in history?

 

They can’t possibly be saved … or can they?

What About Those Who Have Never Heard of the Gospel or Christ?
What About Those Who Have Never Heard of the Gospel or Christ?
What About Those Who Have Never Heard of the Gospel or Christ?

Is Jesus the only way of salvation? The only way to forgiveness? The only way to God?

Many people consider that Christ is the only way to God unacceptable and deeply offensive.

People ask what about those people that have never heard of the gospel or Jesus.

God is not unfair. The Bible says God wants all people to be saved.

Those that have not heard of Christ will not be judged on what they do not know but will be judged on what they do know.

What about those who have never heard of Christ know?

 

Two truths God has revealed to everyone everywhere.

 

1.) God Exists. In nature.

By observing the natural world around us.

 

2.) There is a Moral Law

Our conscience within us. Every one of us has a sense of right and wrong.

 

So those that have not heard of Christ can respond to the light they have been given through God (nature) and Moral Law (Conscience) if they turn to God for forgiveness and new life.

Just like people who lived prior to the time of Christ they can be saved through Christ even though they have not heard of Christ.

But what about people who don’t respond to God’s self-revelation through nature and conscience?

Granted, they freely separate themselves from God and God will not force them to believe if they do not want to.

But maybe they would have believed if only they had heard of Him?

Are they just victims of bad luck? Born at the wrong time and place in history?

According to the Bible, people are not born as a result of an accident, but that God decides where and when each person will live. So, it is possible that God so ordered the world anyone who would believe in Christ if they heard of Him, is born where he does hear about Him.

No one is lost through historical or geographical accident. Anyone who wants or would want to be saved will be saved.

Our eternal destiny truly lies in our own hands.

How about you?

“God made every nation of men… that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history… and the boundaries of their lands. God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for Him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us.” Acts 17:26-27

 

What about Those Who Have Never Heard of the gospel or Christ?

A short 5-minute video from  Reasonable Faith

What About Those Who Have Never Heard of the Gospel or Christ?

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Descending into Madness Without Forgiveness

Descending into Madness Without Forgiveness

by | Jan 15, 2020 | Forgiveness, John Tarr

Descending into Madness Without Forgiveness

As I was watching a new movie called “The Professor and the Mad Man” with Mell Gibson (Professor James Murry) and Sean Penn (Dr. William Chester Minor). Many emotions came to my mind. This film is very complicated and well done.

It’s a true story about how the first Oxford English Dictionary was created and the unlikely friendship that evolved between a Scottish autodidact and a schizophrenic, PTSD-suffering American civil war veteran.

These two became the most unlikely of friends. Sean Penn plays the part of the mad man, Dr. James Murry, who is in an English prison for the insane in 1879. 

In his mind, he is haunted by some of the ghosts of the past and thinks they are following him and wanting him to pay a price for what he has done. He thinks these ghosts have not forgiven him and do not think God has either.

It eventually made him crazy and irrational. 

(Left) Mell Gibson as Professor James Murry –  (right) Sean Penn as Dr. William Minor

Descending into Madness Without Forgiveness

 

In this haze of PTSD, Dr. Minor teams up with Professor Murry on how to put together this very complicated dictionary and become friends in the process. Working on this project, Dr. Minor’s symptoms are reduced because his mind is being occupied with the work.  

Eventually, he would again descend back into madness because of an unfortunate event in prison. Dr. Minor said something very interesting to Professor Murry when he came to visit him to find out what happened.

“God makes you pay a heavy toll for your past sins.”

How many of us believe deep down inside that God makes us pay a heavy toll for our past behaviors and indiscretions and we need to pay back for what we have done? 

Many of us do not think we are worthy to be forgiven and replay our past over and over trying to make sense out of what we have done. 

Sometimes other people that we have injured do not want to forgive us. It is still too painful for them. They want us to pay a heavy toll. Some people are just so filled with anger that no amount of payback will work to fix the wrong, real or imagined, that has occurred.

We also can be consumed by this fire that burns inside of us because of anger towards someone else. We too can replay the event over and over until we begin to descend into madness. 

How do we overcome this sinful human condition of anger and unforgiveness? This terrible cycle we seem to find ourselves in all too often.

Jesus Christ is the only way.

What amazing God Christians serve! He has made a way out of this madness of unforgiveness and sin. By turning himself into a human and walking among us and eventually dying at our hands. This sinless entity took all of our bad behaviors and evil ways and piled them on His shoulders and took them to the grave forever.

We are now forgiven.

Forgiven completely and not just a little bit. It has to be all or nothing in God’s eyes. Nothing can be left over to haunt us and take us back into the madness of unforgiveness. God does not want that for His children who He loves so much.

“What is man that You are mindful of him, And the son of man that You visit him?” Psalm 8:4 (NKJV)

Dr. Minor’s madness was rooted in the past. In his mind, he just could not be forgiven because all the people he thought he had harmed were dead and gone so there was no way he could make it up to them. They kept haunting him and driving insane. It was an eye for an eye from the Old Testament and could not be appeased. 

Jesus came with a new message in the New Testament. Judgment was cast aside for a better, sane way of life and relationships. All we have to do is ask the Creator of the universe to come into our lives. Put our pride on hold and tell Him we need help. Become born again into a new life and a new thought process.

Forgiveness allows us to start over again no matter what we have done. It gives us hope to start again and knowing we are not alone. Our mentor becomes God Himself and the Bible the driver’s manual.

This will truly keep us sane.

I think God designed us to be forgiven because we all have done things in our lives to other people great and small. We cannot help it because of the sin nature we were born with. Scripture tells us in:

 Romans 3:23 “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”

There is also a terrible price to pay if we do not forgive. From God’s word, it says in:

Matt: 6:14-15  “For if you forgive others for their transgressions, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others, then your Father will not forgive your transgressions.”

In other words, if you do not forgive others you are condemning yourself. Now if that is not madness, I do not know what is.

As I write this out, I am searching myself if I have not forgiven others of their transgressions towards me. I do not want God to deal with me in this unforgiving way. After He has given me a way out of the insanity I do not want to go back to that life.

Now that’s a scary thought. I have already asked God to forgive me for thinking that.

 

If you would like to know about this great movie “The Professor and the Madman”

 

Descending into Madness Without Forgiveness

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Two Measures Foolish: Foolish to God for we sin – Foolish to the world for the cross.

Two Measures Foolish are a Christian Apologetics group of writers that write from a Christian Perspective and Christian World View using the Bible as our core.

We all travel on an individual journey on this planet earth that God has put into motion from the day we were formed in our mothers’ body. We all have deep questions that need to be answered. Why are we here? Is this all there is?

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Missing God in Baby Jesus

Missing God in Baby Jesus

by | Jan 1, 2020 | Apologetics, John Tarr, Talking With God

Missing God in Baby Jesus

Christmas time is a time for celebration. As humans, we look for things to celebrate or to party for. We want a break from our normal lives and want to participate in something larger than ourselves.

As Christians, our focus should be on the birth of Jesus and not Santa Clause, gifts, Christmas lights and a tree to decorate. We reflect on the baby in the manger and we may even understand what it took for Mary and Joseph to arrive at that place in time and space along with the shepherds and wise men.

“The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us” John 1:14

This baby had made His entrance into the world in all the usual ways that all human baby’s show up. He had grown inside of Mary from the smallest organisms. Did God inject Himself as a sperm into her womb and then fertilize her egg that started the whole process? We know Jesus grew all his body parts in His human mother and when He had come to term, He was born on a specific moment in time.

If so, that sperm made Him fully God and that human egg from Mary made Him fully human. That sperm had all the DNA and knowledge of God Himself in this teeny tiny package that would mix with the human egg cell with all of the DNA of humanity.

Wrap your head around that.

Why God decided to design human life to exist on this planet in this solar system in this universe is only something He knows. The possibilities must have been endless. God’s Middle knowledge is something only He has. When you factor in man’s ‘free will’ this existence that we are living in realy is the “Best Possible of All Worlds”. 

I know I am playing Monday morning quarterback here because I know how this story ends but for all those people that lived and had contact with Jesus, I do not think anyone truly understood what they had in their midst until He died and was resurrected from the dead.

Here was a small helpless baby with many different types of people staring down at Him. Each one of them had thoughts dancing in their heads of who and what this baby represented and meant for them and everyone else, but I think the full understanding was elusive to them.

Missing God in Baby Jesus

Missing God in Baby Jesus

 

Can you imagine being right there and hearing this baby cry or watch His mother feed and change His dirty diaper? God in the flesh? Who can grasp that concept? One moment you could gaze down on this little helpless human baby wrapped in small blankets and the next you could walk outside of their dwelling and look up into the nighttime sky and realize that baby made ALL of that!

A sky that was so clear and, in a place, and time that no city lights could dim the view of the universe. An amazing perspective with the billions of galaxies all swirling about just out of reach above your head.

“The heavens declare the glory of God” Psalm 19:1

To many of us, we have heard this story of the birth of Jesus so many times that its true impact can be lost on us in the mundane. I try to unpack this truth not only at Christmas time but at other points in time when I am trying to understand the creator of this universe and what He has done for humanity and me in particular.

I am trying to make it fresh. Peel away the God onion and look deeper into what it is we worship. I love exploring God’s universe and checking out all His creative ways. The natural world just cries out Intelligent Designer from the largest to the smallest and everything in between. The complexity of it all is truly breathtaking in its scope.

Who is this entity that we call God?

“When I consider Your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon, and the stars, which you have set in place, what is mankind that you are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them?” Psalm 8:3

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Two Measures Foolish are a Christian Apologetics group of writers that write from a Christian Perspective and Christian World View using the Bible as our core.

We all travel on an individual journey on this planet earth that God has put into motion from the day we were formed in our mothers’ body. We all have deep questions that need to be answered. Why are we here? Is this all there is?

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