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--- jn_en_2020_01_06 [2020/01/06 08:31] – potthast
+++ jn_en_2020_01_06 [2020/01/06 17:26] (current) – potthast
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 our life in general, to build it on solid ground.
+Let us talk about the overall framework of our life. Let us talk about this world,
+as it can be observed and experienced. And let us talk about the biblical promises,
+the message of the Old Testament and the New Testament. Let us talk about experiences
+of Christians, and about the life with God, what it can be ...
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-**  ... **
+** Human Life ... **
+Human life is a fascinating story, starting with birth, with being an infant, with growing
+up. It continues through adolescence, with hitting puberty. But life does not stop with
+the adventurous parts of our youth. It does not stop with discovering our strengths and
+talents. At some point, we start a professional education and enter working life. We
+start to take over responsibility for our enterprise, for projects, goals, institutes and
+sometimes even whole states. But life does not stop with discovering our strengths and
+weaknesses.
+The time of professional development usually coincides with partnership, with
+finding a woman or a man. Humans discover that men and women are made for love,
+that we need each other, that we are made for one another. Love is one of our hopes
+and dreams, it is given to our life, deeply rooted into our soul, our desires, our biology
+and chemistry. But life does not stop with the partnership. It continues and mostly,
+we found a family. The first kids come, and suddenly
+the nights start to be full of activity. Young kids are fantastic, a real blessing to each
+of our days!
-<color #aa0000>
+Human life does not stop with building a family. Kids grow up, and our work environment,
+jobs and colleagues develop. Some companies break down, some states get into trouble.
-</color>(Johannes 1, 1-4)
+Other companies arise and succeed, states change and develop. New technology changes
+our life all the time, human history has never stood still, there was always change.
+But continuing innovation is not the final point of our life either. We grow old, we
+realize that parts of our body starts to deteriorate and to fail. We experience severe
+illness and at some point, we become old. We realize that life will end. Often, it
+is not easy for humans to accept death to come. All our plans need to be given up. We
+have to let go - it is imposed to us.
+Is death the end? We could think it is, since we cannot see beyond usually. But the
+biblical testimony tells us that death is not the end. It is just a limit which was
+imposed to mankind by God, the creator. Every human is limited to his life time, but
+there is more to come. Life as we know it is not all. We will need to discuss
+this in more detail later, and explore what can and will happen after death. For
+today, let us just note the typical life circle as all humans experience it.
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-** The Son ... **
+** God in all of it ... **
+God wants to be in all of our life. That is one of the main statements of basically
+all biblical books. The biblical books, starting from the opus of Moses, through the
+historical books, the prophets, the psalms and wisdom literature, they all claim
+that God has made the earth, that God maintains the earth with its natural laws, with
+animals and humans, with human mind and spirit and intelligence as well as the
+spiritual world.
-<color #aa0000>
+The world is a fascinating place, with many religions. It is a place where different
-And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
+people have their own interpretation of how the world works. If you go into
-</color> (John 1, 14)
+Islamic countries, you find social systems which impose Muslim religion to its inhabitants.
+Conversion is not an option and highly dangerous. In Africa and Asia,
+you find various versions of kingdoms and dictatorships, some of them under the
+name of democracy, but too many without real
+freedom of speech or political choice. Some communist countries are extremely difficult,
+and modern technology enables far reaching control. You also find countries with a lot
+of freedom, with free choice of religion, with Christian tradition, and some with
+very secular cultural life.
+Modern free societies have developed on the background of the reformation and enlightenment.
+These societies have been a Christian movement - mixed with many political interests,
+but with some core Christian values which became law and order. But I am far from saying
+that all what calls itself Christian would be good just by the fact that it uses the
+name of Christ. Even Jesus himself had his fights with the establishment of his time,
+with the misuse of faith for various purposes, and with the misunderstanding of God.
+Let us explore the core Christian message, as we find it it the Old Testament and the New
+Testament. Let us try to understand God in father, son and holy spirit. Who is he, the
+one who is beyond this world, but also in this world? Who is he, who seems to be a mystery,
+but at the same time openly available through biblical texts and Christian life, art,
+literature and worship for 2000 years. How is life with God supposed to work? How
+can it work? What ever phase of life you are in, it will always be new and refreshing
+to turn to God and explore his presence, his truth, his mercy, his love, his hope and
+perspective for our life today and tomorrow! Let us go this way ...
 (Roland Potthast)