Display Comb 4

/ featured media, post meta, title, read more link and full content

Atheist says that “God is good for Africa”

  • November 7, 2014
  • Culture
  • Comments Off on Atheist says that “God is good for Africa”

Matthew Parris, writer for The Times and former Member of Parliament, is not your typical atheist, for he wrote in an article on 27th Dec, 2008, saying, “As an atheist, I truly believe Africa needs God.   Missionaries, not aid money, are the solution to Africa’s biggest problem – the crushing passivity of the people’s mindset.”

As a result of researching a story on aid organisations in Africa, Paris wrote: “Travelling in Malawi refreshed a belief I’ve been trying to banish all my life, but an observation I’ve been unable to avoid since my childhood.   It confounds my ideological beliefs, refuses to fit my world view and has embarrassed my growing belief that there is no God.”

He goes on to say: “I’ve become convinced of the enormous contribution that Christianity makes in Africa: sharply distinct from the work of secular and government organisations and international aid efforts.   These alone will not do.   Education and training alone will not do.   Christianity changes people’s hearts.   It brings spiritual transformation.”

So, even atheists are discovering that no one is doing very well without Jesus.   Without Jesus, Africa reverts to tribal warfare, abusive overlords and urban gangsterism.   Parris says that removing Christianity from Africa risks “leaving the continent at the mercy of a malignant fusion of Nike, the witch doctor, …and the machete.”

If atheism and indifference to God is not working very well for you, perhaps you’d better re-connect with God and be what you were intended to be.

Valentine’s Day

What did you get up to last Valentine’s day? Did you do anything that scored you a kiss or did you ‘crash and burn’?

The origins of Valentine’s day are not known with any certainty, because there were at least three early Christians called Valentine who were martyred for their faith.

However, a lovely legend has arisen around one.

Marcus Aurelius Claudius was the Emperor of Rome from 268 to 270 AD. His problem was that he could not get enough young men to serve in his army to fight the foreign wars he was waging. Rather than blame himself for the unpopular wars, he blamed the institution of marriage because he thought that marriage was keeping his men at home. He therefore banned marriage throughout his empire. The story goes, however, that Valentine, an early Christian bishop, still married people in secret. When a report of this reached Claudius, he had Valentine put to death.

The story could well be true.

Certainly, it makes you think. Valentine’s day may well have had its origin in a man who had the courage to stand up for God’s values even when it cost him his life.

So, by all means, continue to give the flowers and chocolates, but if you are not prepared to seek Godly values for your marriage and your family, it is simply sentimentality. If you really want to be like Valentine, then be prepared to stand for Christian values in your family and in your community.

The Prodigal

Eric Clapton once lived the life of an alcoholic on the streets. He wrote a song about this experience on his Unplugged album, entitled: “Nobody knows you when you’re down and out.”

Jesus once told a story about a young son who badgered his Father for his share of the inheritance, and then went off and squandered the lot on parties and prostitutes. He, too, discovered when he was broke that everyone deserted him. Eventually, he decides to go back home, confess his stupidity and ask to be taken back as a servant.

When his father sees him coming in the distance, he runs out to him, hugs him and welcomes him back. To signify his acceptance, the father gives his son three things.

First, he gives his son a high quality robe, a symbol of distinction and honour. Jesus said this to teach that no one is without honour in God’s community.

Second, he gives him the family signet ring. This gave him authority to act on behalf of his father. Jesus said this to teach that no one is without God’s authority in God’s community.

Thirdly, he gives him sandals for his feet, because only slaves went barefooted. Jesus said this to teach that there are no second class citizens in God’s community.

Jesus told this story for all who feel they are lost, deserted and not living their true purpose. If that’s you, why not come home to God and be all you were meant to be?

Evil, Culture and God

Christianity is thriving in China despite most of the Christian church being persecuted. However, sometimes there are reports of the Chinese government being so amazed at the difference being a Christian makes that they secretly study it to find out why.

One Christian industrial company they are watching is the Boteli Valve Group in Wenzhou. They make 5 million dollars worth of engine valves a year. The manager of the company encourages his workers to become Christians and have Bible studies because he has discovered that the Christian faith makes people more conscientious.

The fact is, Christianity is a whole new way of living that changes peoples character, causing it to become more and more like that of Jesus.

Maybe the West needs to remember this in its headlong rush to embrace secularism, other faiths and liberal ethics toxic to the values of truth, human worth and integrity, values derived from a Christian culture that has been the historical basis of our legal, medical and educational systems.

Nothing very good happens when authentic Christianity is abandoned. The complete absence of empathy, (that’s to say, the ability to care about or identify with others) resulted in the torture and genocide of 6 million people in Nazi extermination camps. God, however, is passionate about justice, the plight of the poor and passionate about you. So, if you want to grow what is good, then come to God, embrace his character and allow him to transform you.

Lost Something?

Ever lost something important?

NASA has.   It’s lost its little, yellow, plastic ducks.

If you’ve found them, do please return them.

In September 2008, some 90 yellow, plastic ducks were thrown into a hole in the ice in Greenland.   Why did they do this, you might reasonably ask?   They did so in order to study the movement of water under the ice’s surface which was lubricating the base of the Greenland ice cap, causing the ice to slide faster toward the sea.

It was expected that the plastic toys would travel by internal channels within the ice and resurface somewhere in the sea.   Unfortunately, none of them were ever seen again.

It may interest you to know that God has a keen interest in finding things that are lost.   Jesus said he’d come to seek and to save what was lost (Lk 19:10).

Luke, chapter 15, particularly talks about God’s priority in finding those who are lost.

Verses 3-7 talk about God being a shepherd who leaves his 99 sheep in order to find one sheep that is lost.   This answers the question, “Does God care about me?”

Verses 8-10 talk about God being like someone searching diligently for a lost coin.   This answers the question about how keen God is to find the lost.

Verses 11-24 talk about God’s willingness to receive back a lost, wayward son.   This answers the question, “Will God accept me?”

So, if you’re lost, why not allow God to find you.

1 … 21 22 23