jn_en_2020_01_06
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as it can be observed and experienced. And let us talk about the biblical promises, | 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 | the message of the Old Testament and the New Testament. Let us talk about experiences | ||
- | of Christians, and about | + | of Christians, and about the life with God, what it can be ... |
{{2017_01_23.jpg }} | {{2017_01_23.jpg }} | ||
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Human life is a fascinating story, starting with birth, with being an infant, with growing | Human life is a fascinating story, starting with birth, with being an infant, with growing | ||
- | up. It continues through adolescence, | + | up. It continues through adolescence, |
- | a professional education and enter working life. This coincides with partnership, | + | the adventurous parts of our youth. It does not stop with discovering our strengths and |
- | finding a woman or a man, and with founding | + | talents. At some point, we start a professional education and enter working life. We |
- | the nights start to be full of activity. | + | 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 | ||
+ | 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. | ||
+ | of our days! | ||
Human life does not stop with building a family. Kids grow up, and our work environment, | Human life does not stop with building a family. Kids grow up, and our work environment, | ||
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have to let go - it is imposed to us. | have to let go - it is imposed to us. | ||
- | {{ 2017_01_23_2.jpg}} | + | 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. | ||
- | ** The Son ... ** | + | {{ 2017_01_23_2.jpg}} |
+ | ** 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 |
- | </ | + | Islamic countries, you find social systems which impose Muslim religion to its inhabitants. |
+ | Conversion is not an option and highly dangerous. In Africa | ||
+ | you find various versions of kingdoms | ||
+ | name of democracy, but too many without real | ||
+ | freedom | ||
+ | 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) | (Roland Potthast) | ||
jn_en_2020_01_06.1578296803.txt.gz · Last modified: 2020/01/06 08:46 by potthast