WHY DOES GOD STILL LOVE US...?

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Hi H.......,

Q. "Why does God still love us when we destroy the earth every day by pollution, wars, etc?"

Tell me, don't your parents still love you no matter what you do?...even if you damage something precious? Wouldn't they be more hurt if you just ignored them, like people ignore God who loves them so much?

John was the disciple who really felt so loved by Jesus and he tells us: "Let us love one another; because love is of God....God is love....Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent His Son a propitiation (atonement) for our sins."

Destroying the Earth is a bad thing but ignoring the Owner (God) is worse.

 

 

Goddess Athena

Hi P......,

Q. "Why do people travel the world to talk about God, when they believe in statues instead?"
 Yeah, good question. It really makes you wonder whether they know the one true God or do they just believe in some god of their own imagination. Remember how we discussed God being so offended by us comparing Him to some pathetic statue, even if it's gold and 28 metres high. In fact, he scoffs at people carving a wooden god and saying:"I have burned half of it in the fire, yes, I have also baked bread on its coals; I have roasted meat and eaten it....shall I fall down before a block of wood?" 
How stupid!...burn half then worship the other half!

 

 

Q. "What does Noah mean?"
Noah means 'rest'.  Let me tell you about Noah in the Bible....
He was a just man....he walked with God.
God warned him about a coming global flood so he moved with 'godly fear' and made an ark to save his family.
If Noah hadn't done that we wouldn't be here; everybody on Earth today has Noah (and Mrs. Noah) in their family tree! 
The name Noah reminds us to fear God like Mr. Noah did.

 

 

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3 PLUS 1 IN A HOT SPOT

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More great questions - this time from Year 3/4 girls at a 3rd school........ 

 

Hi girls,

"...the fourth is like a Son of God!"

Your question today: "How long did it take for Jesus to get to the furnace? and...how did He get there?"
I don't know how 'the Son of God' got to the furnace but it was real quick! No sooner had the 3 men fallen down in the furnace, king Nebuchadnezzar has jumped to his feet, saying: "Didn't we throw three men bound into the middle of the fire?...Look! I see four men loose and walking in the fire; they're not hurt... ".
As for the king, after 7 years of serious mental illness (predicted in another dream!) he finally realized God is the Boss.
He praised 'the King of heaven': "No one can restrain His hand or say to Him, 'What have you done?'.... all of whose works are truth and His ways justice. Those who walk in pride He is able to put down."

 

 

"Bow the knee? Not us!"

Hi girls,

You were asking: "Why didn't Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-Nego bow to the statue?"
First of all, 'well done' for spelling their names correctly!
They said to the king: "We do not serve your gods, nor will we worship the golden image which you have set up." Why did they say that?
God had given the Israel people 10 laws and the first was: "I am the Lord your God...you shall have no other gods before me."
The 2nd law was: "You shall not make for yourself a carved image...you shall not bow down to them or serve them."
The penalty for breaking these laws was death!...so they obeyed God rather than man.

Hi ........,

You asked: "Why did king Neb want the statue gold?"
Gold has always been the most prized precious metal. It is beautiful and doesn't rust or even tarnish. The Babylonian empire was known for its gold.
Did you know they coat astronaut visors and aircraft windscreens with gold?
But that's nothing....when God delivers the new holy city it will be made of pure gold! 

Hi .......,

You asked: "How did all the people find the gold to make the statue?"
The Bible doesn't actually tell us but in those days the kings either went to war to steal another country's gold or they got their own people to donate gold things. 

Hi ............,

You asked: "Does God forgive you if you say something mean about Him?"
I thought the best way to answer you was tell you what the apostle Paul said about himself:
".....I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor, and an insolent man; but I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly in unbelief."

What's he saying?

'I was an arrogant man who said bad things about God and hurt His people but I have been forgiven - I didn't realize what I was doing.'
If you're feeling angry with God about something, say it to Him, not to others - just like you might complain to your dad rather than bagging him to other people.

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DID GOD CREATE THE ICE AGE?

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G'day H.........,

Q. "Did God create the Ice Age?" 
The Bible doesn't tell us clearly about the Ice Age but I understand that it would be expected with warm oceans and volcanic ash in the skies after the Great Flood.
Later on, Job lived in the Middle East in the land of Uz where his friend Elihu reminded him:
"By the breath of God ice is given, and the broad waters are frozen."
...then God showed up to ask Job:
"From whose womb comes the ice? and the frost of heaven who gives it birth? The waters harden like stone, and the surface of the deep is frozen."

How much sea-ice is in the Middle East these days? None? So yes, I think God did cause the Ice Age.
By the way, water is one of the very few substances that expands as it cools - if it didn't we wouldn't be here.  What amazing stuff!

 

G'day L........,

Q1. "What will happen at the end of time?"
"...they (heavens and Earth) will all grow old like a garment; like a cloak you will change them and they will be changed. But You are the Same, and Your years will have no end."
...and there's this one:
"...the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up...Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells."

Interesting hey?...everything is winding down just like Science tells us (entropy) and there is a 'Big Bang'.........at the end!

Q2 So you want to know another random fact about God and Jesus?

Jesus was born in Bethlehem by a virgin, betrayed by a friend for 30 pieces of silver, flogged, clothes stolen, crucified with criminals, speared, buried in a rich man's tomb, raised from the dead...all foretold in the Bible hundreds of years before!.... even the date He would enter Jerusalem on a donkey!

G'day K.....,

Q1 "How old was God when He died on the cross?"
Jesus was only 33 years old when he was crucified and that was predicted hundreds of years before in the Bible!
"Oh my God, do not take me away in the midst of my days..."

"...who will declare His generation? For He was cut off from the land of the living..."
(He died young violently so who can tell us about His family?)

"Messiah shall be cut off, and shall have nothing..." (He will die young violently, and lose everything - even His clothes!)


G'day M.....,

Yet to happen - Man's empires smashed! 

Q1 "Why did we have to do a crossword?"
 It was good revision for you to see how much you could remember about that important lesson: Nebuchadnezzar's Dream. Why so important? 
It is Israel's view of the world from 606BC to the end of time - so that includes you and me in 2014!...plus it is about trusting in God who is in control even if we think He doesn't exist. Don't forget - history has proved this dream to be very accurate!

Q2 "How was God born? Who is God? How can He do everything and give things and make things?"

Aw mate, that's too hard for me! It's like being a little baby looking up at Dad (or Mum), thinking...who are you?...where did you come from?...how can you do such amazing things?
What I do know is that God is real, we are surrounded by evidence of Him everywhere we look, He loves you and me oh so much, He is awesome, and the Bible says God has been and will be around forever! He is the great I AM.
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WHO INSPIRED YOU?

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G'day Brad,

Q. "Who inspired you to become a Scripture teacher?"
  
Did I tell you about the little wooden plaque that hung over my bed as a 6 year old? 
It said: "Suffer the children to come to me." 
That's now my role in life!
The disciples of Jesus were telling the kids to get lost: "Go on, buzz off - the Teacher hasn't got time for you lot." ...but Jesus was quite angry about that.
Yes, it was Jesus that inspired me.

Also I am inspired by you boys and girls because you are each a unique miracle and it is an immense privilege for me to be able to teach you from the Bible. I see you as young people in your own right, not just schoolchildren, so I don't 'dumb down' the lessons for you.

I am sure there will be eternal results!
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WHO WAS FIRST...FEMALE OR MALE?

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Hi A.......,

Q. "What came first, female or male?"

Sorry to disappoint you - the male got here first!
Adam was the one who God told to not eat that fruit, so he is held responsible for bringing sin and death into the world.

"And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam, and he slept; and He took one of his ribs, and closed up flesh in its place. Then the rib which the Lord God had taken from man He made into a woman, and He brought her to the man..."

By the way, that's not so silly. If surgeons perform a costectomy and remove a rib but leave the surrounding periosteum membrane, osteoblast cells will regrow replacement rib bone!

Guess what was the ultimate creation?
The woman!...the glory of man. 

Hi M......,

Q  "Why do people do bad things?"

M.......dear, I'm going to have to leave you to answer your own question.
Do you do bad things sometimes? If so, why?
For me, I have some innate tendency to want to please myself in rebellion against God. Where did this come from?...
The Bible says: "through one man (Adam) sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned..."
Thank God it's not hopeless...
"For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man's obedience many will be made righteous."

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JESUS HADN'T BEEN BORN YET!



"There's the star. Now which house is He in?"

Hi Bree,

Q1 "You said Jesus wasn't born (yet), so how were people created?"
Yes, Nebuchadnezzar did attack Jerusalem in 606 BC, ~600 years before Jesus was born.
Some time (months?) after Jesus had been born, the magi arrived to worship Him as the King of the Jews, ...but wherever is this little Boy?
This had been written in the Bible about 700 years before:

"But you, Bethlehem Ephratah, though you are little among the thousands of Israel, yet out of you shall come forth to Me the one to be Ruler in Israel, whose goings forth are from old, from everlasting."

Whatever is this saying?

The little town of Bethlehem is where the new Ruler of Israel will come from and He is from past eternity - He has been around....FOREVER!
(That's why king Herod sent soldiers to kill all the children under 2 years old in the district of Bethlehem.)

Q2. "How can a stone make a big mountain?"

It can't. It only does in King Nebuchadnezzar's dream to show us what will happen when Jesus Christ comes back to establish His kingdom on Earth...soon!

 

Hi Caitlin,

Q. "Why did God create us when He could have just made aliens and planets or just not made anything?"
Okay, planets?...sure God has made plenty of them....but aliens? Aliens are called that because they don't belong - they're foreign, so why would God make something that doesn't belong?
Yes, God could have not made anything but remember, we are created 'in God's image', so if we are both creative and enjoy company, guess what!....so does He!
Not only does God want to enjoy the company of His creatures, God loves you and me - so much - that He was willing to pay the heavy price to save us.
What does it cost us?
Nothing.

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TELL ME ABOUT THE BEGINNING!

G'day L......,

So you want to know about the beginning, hey?
Fair enough. So who was there in the beginning?  Everybody!........as dust.
That means only God can tell us precisely what He did, which we find in Genesis 1, starting with:

"In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth."

We are then told the 'earth' was without form, so this is just the hard stuff or 'matter'.

In other words, at the beginning of time God started with space and matter.
Guess what?...that's what Science says too!.....
The physical universe must have had a beginning and its basic elements are the space-matter-time continuum.

Hi P....,

Q. "How come people thought Jesus was bad and killed Him on the cross?"
The Jewish people mostly thought Jesus was wonderful because He healed them of anything, miraculously fed them well, no matter how many thousands of people turned up, and even raised some from the dead. What seemed to turn them against accepting Jesus as their Messiah or King was that instead of marching into Jerusalem with an army to defeat the Roman soldiers, He rode in on a donkey to again upset the money -making at the temple. In the end they accepted the Roman caesar as their king and begged Jesus be crucified on a cross meant for Barabbas, a murderer.
We are just like them....we want Jesus to fix our problems but not be Lord of our lives.

 

G'day C....,

Q. "Why don't some people believe in God?"
Do they not believe in God or are they just saying that? It is in our human nature to not want to recognise a supreme authority that we will one day have to answer to, but on the other hand, we all have a conscience and instinctively know that there is some sort of after-life. The Bible says: "God has put eternity in their hearts."
Actually us Christians are very responsible for not defending the Bible as God's Word so that so many people now like to think that 'science' has proved God doesn't exist, when in fact, there is a lot of science in the Bible and true observational science even supports what the Bible says.

G'day S....,

So you want me to tell you a fact about God, hey?
Tell me...could you do with a great friend?
How about having the Creator of the universe as your closest friend?  Pretty cool, huh!
The Bible says: "A man who has friends must himself be friendly, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother." In other words, you have to cultivate friendships with people but having Jesus as your friend is the best - He will NEVER let you down.
Abraham found it hard to wait 25 years for God to fulfil His promise but he is called "the friend of God".
How come??
He believed God! Simple as that.
So....here's your fact: God ALWAYS keeps His promises - eventually, in His own good time.

Hi J...,
Q. "Why did God choose to make Earth?"
Isaiah tells us that God formed the Earth to be inhabited. Why? I know God is creative like us - we have been made in His image - and I believe He wants to enjoy our company. 
In the end we are told: "Look! the tabernacle (tent) of God is with men, and he shall tabernacle (camp) with them, and they shall be his people, and God Himself shall be with them, their God...."
It seems to me that God has set up Earth to reveal Himself to people and test them, so as to know who He can live with for ever.  

Hi G....,

Q. "If God made everyone, would we all be related?"
God made the first man, Adam, and his wife, Eve who is the mother of all living.
After the Great Flood 1,656 years later, 8 people came out of Noah's ark to re-populate the Earth: Noah and his wife, their 3 sons, and their 3 wives.
I understand geneticists say that all males on Earth today have the same 'Y chromosome Adam' from their father and everybody has one of 3 types of 'mitchondrial Eve' as the energy program in our body cells, from our mothers.
How many future mothers came out of the ark? Three!
In other words, we all have Adam, Eve, Noah, Noah's wife and at least one of Noah's sons, plus his wife, in our family ancestry.
Yes, we are all related. Science proves once again that the Bible tells the truth.  

 

Hi M...
Q. "What would happen if Adam and Eve hadn't disobeyed? Would we still be living like we are now?"
Adam and Eve were innocent, with no real concept of right or wrong - a bit like little children sometimes today (when they're good!). If they had not disobeyed, there would be no sin, no suffering, and no death. Also our diet would be different: Man was not permitted by God to eat meat until after the Great Flood.
Yes, things would be very different.
All is not lost though because God is greater than our weakness and Jesus has broken the power of sin and death by taking our penalty then rising from the grave. God will eventually establish a new heavens and new earth and will dwell with us.

"God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away."
Bring it on, hey!