Should We Be Optimistic?

I heard a radio interview with an economist yesterday. The interviewer asked the economist: "should we be optimistic?" The interviewer, of course, was just talking about the economy.

I wonder, though, are you optimistic? Should you be optimistic? Apart from lots of money still flowing through the country because of a "mining boom", what do you have to look forward to? Is the future of this country really just all about money?

Is the ability to buy huge TVs and innumerable gadgets really a source of hope when neglected kids wander the streets in gangs? Is having a roof over your head really a comfort, when that roof isn't over the heads of those you love as well? Are payrises for politicians really compensation for children dying in state custody?

Isn't it about time you took off the blinkers and actually really looked around you at the world you live in? Can you be optimistic about it? Does what you see inspire hope? Go on, tell me - are you optimistic?

The Great Identity Theft

I can kind of understand where atheists are coming from.

If I had been taught from birth that I could earn my way into heaven by doing penance for my sins, I probably wouldn't think much of God either. If I believed that I could buy my way into heaven I would be completely disgusted with Him.

Billions of people who have lived lives of horrific suffering have not accepted Jesus Christ as their Saviour. Many don't really understand who He is. Many fear of rejection or even torture at the hands of their friends, family or government. If I believed that those billions would ultimately be further tortured in ever-burning-hell by the God who calls Himself Love, I would turn my back on Him too.

On the other hand, if I believed that babies who couldn't speak a single word got to go to heaven just because they had water sprinkled on them in a mystical ritual, I would think that was really unfair. How could God know those babies would actually want to be there? What if they decided they didn't like God? Would He "force" them to like Him and do things His way - turning them into some kind of glorified robots?

Thankfully, I believe what the Bible actually says about God instead.

God has been subject to the greatest identity theft in the history of the universe. Over and over throughout history, God's name has been falsely stamped on acts of cruelty, ignorance and stupidity - on wars and crusades, on superstition, lies and trickery.

Thankfully God knew right from the beginning that this would happen and He has a Plan - a great, big, huge, enormous Plan, far greater than we usually give Him credit for.

You can either get to know God now through His Word - reading the Bible for what it actually says, not what other people say it says. Or you can sit back and wait and see what happens. Either way, you'll get to know who God really is eventually - that's all part of His plan. But the "wait and see" approach will definitely end up being more painful in the short term. Read the book of Revelation and you'll see why.

The Season To Be Jolly?

It's that time of year again.

Time when there is talk of presents and trees and ornaments, and - very occasionally - the birth of Jesus Christ.

Only. It's really nothing to do with the birth of Jesus. Shepherds were in the fields when He was born - not likely in the middle of winter. And what do holly and decorated trees and lying to children about old men in red suits riding flying reindeer have to do with the birth of Jesus?

Nothing.

But they have a lot to do with the pagan Roman festival of Saturnalia. A festival devoted to worshipping false gods.

When you attend a church service on Christmas, are you sure you know who you are worshipping? Search the Bible, search history and the Truth may surprise you... or upset you. Are you really prepared to live for the Truth?

To find out more about the origins of Christmas and what God really thinks about it (based on His Word, the Bible), you can watch The Day After Christmas on Beyond Today.

Medicated Morality?

I recently heard a well-known researcher, Julian Savulescu, suggest that we should use drugs or genetic modification to make us better people. Researchers have found that drugs can make people cooperate better and less prejudiced among other things.

But can drugs make us better? Drugs interact with our brains and alter chemical reactions, but when God created man in His own image, He gave us something beyond our mere chemical makeup. He gave us a mind. If altering our chemical composition to make us "better" would truly work, God would have done that from the start. He didn't because He created us to have free will, not to be robots.

A drug to make people cooperate won't make a better world. We have a very short memory if we think cooperation is always a good thing. One psycopath plus a bunch of cooperative people equals Nazi Germany and the holocaust.

It really would be better if we tried morality God's way.

Breaking Wind

Have you ever put your heart and soul into working at something... only to have it come to nothing? Maybe a gourmet meal where you added too much salt right at the end? Perhaps you repainted a room, only to have the paint peel, or to decide that you hated the new colour? Or perhaps you scorched a hole in a treasured craft with an iron?

Most of us have experienced it sometime - a totally wasted effort. Discouraging, isn't it? In reality, all our physical efforts will eventually come to nothing. One day, we'll die and then rot in the ground and all our physical accomplishments will rot or collapse or fade with us. Perhaps not right away, but eventually. So what is it all for?

In Isaiah 26 in the Bible, God compares all our efforts to better the world to a woman having "birth pangs" and then, instead of giving birth to a baby... breaking wind. Just imagine thinking you're pregnant for nine months, and then, after a long and difficult labour, letting forth nothing but a massive fart. What a horrible disappointment!

Even the Vatican has suggested a solution to the world's financial woes. Governments, charity organizations, social reformers - you name it - are scrambling to fix everything from wage disputes to climate change. Their efforts are huge, but the end result will be no more than a really bad smell.

There is a simple (but very unpopular) cure to this kind of flatulence. It's doing things God's way. But, as the Bible predicts, it's going to take the total collapse of all that we hold dear before humanity will accept God's way of doing things.

We have the chance to do something that will have a lasting effect - if we invest in something beyond the physical. Will we choose to leave behind something more than a bad smell?

To hear more about how current events relate to prophecy and how we should be living, check out the new Beyond Today Daily.

The World Is Falling Apart...

Have you read in the news that Italy is now being governed by technocrats? That means people who were not elected. Europe is changing rapidly. The governments of Greece and Italy have already collapsed. More big changes are in the wind with France and Spain in financial trouble.

Europe is falling apart. At some point it will be put back together, but it will look very different to the Europe my generation have grown up with. I know this because the Bible says so. Don't believe it? Try reading the books of Daniel and Revelation.

When It's All So Broken

Where do you turn when everything in life seems to go wrong?

When life seems to have turned into a trail of destruction and tragedy, how do you cope?

Any number of politicians and spiritual leaders have thought that they have the answers for a broken world. Many speeches have been made about the perfect formula for peace and prosperity for everyone.

There have been countless campaigns to end poverty and disease. Over 20 years ago a LiveAid concert was held to raise money for people dying of starvation. People are still dying of starvation. Despite the money raised at 46664 concerts since 2003, millions continue to contract and die of AIDS. Make Poverty History still hasn't made poverty history, six years after it started. GM crops were meant to be the solution to world hunger, but since the widespread growing of GM rice started, the world has suffered from a widespread rice shortage.

What hope is there for a broken world that politicians, spiritual leaders and charity organizations have completely failed to fix? Maybe occasionally someone succeeds a little bit - but then another (often bigger) problem springs up somewhere else.

The real reason the world is so broken is that we continue to resist the only real solution to every problem we have ever had.

Sometime - maybe soon - a bunch of leaders will come up with a solution to the world's brokenness that seems to really work - an alliance of powerful nations. In the end, though, it will lead to disaster and destruction greater than this world has ever known. Only after that can the real healing happen when Christ Himself takes over the world.

The question is - which side will we be on?

To read about Bible prophecies that explain the future and God's plan, have a look at the free booklet, You Can Understand Bible Prophecy.

I also recommend watching the Beyond Today episode: Calling Good Evil.