God vs Aliens

The other day, actually quite a while ago I was scrolling through News24, (which I do occasionally so that I stay up to date with what is happening in the world around me), I came across a news story about aliens in JHB. That evening while I was driving home from work they are talking about it in the radio and the picture had been edited etc. to make people believe it was real. What shocked me quite a bit  about this was how people really believed that there were aliens out there even though there is not proof of aliens, we've never seen or experienced aliens people still believed it was true. The reason I was shocked was because people believe in aliens where there is no evidence they exist but they don't believe in God even though there is proof that he exists - He created the world.

People will spend hours looking for aliens, reading up on aliens and how people think they have "visited" earth but in reality no aliens have been found in space. No matter how hard astronauts look or how far they look they still can't find them. There has been new research found that there was or is water on Mars but this does not mean that their is life there, and even if there was that does not mean there are aliens living there.

People also spend hours searching for God and He has satisfied their search and revealed himself to them. I can speak from experience here, I've spend many hours searching for Him, reading up on Him and He has shown me Himself. He has spoken straight to my heart and I have experienced Him in numerous ways and on numerous occasions. It even says in the bible "You will seek me and find me when you seek me with your whole heart" Jeremiah 29:13. I believe this is true because I have done this.

It's crazy how people place their hopes in finding aliens who never interact with us, but are closed to searching for God, who says we will find Him when we seek Him.

xKx

Hope

The other day I realised that the only reason we have hope is because of God.  Everyone has hope for something or in something, but a hope that gives us confidence and peace is a hope that results from something that is constant.

What is hope?

Hope according to an online dictionary, hope is a feeling or desire of expectation and desire for something particular to happen. Hope is also a feeling of trust. 

Just to go round in circles for a bit, when we have hope we're trusting in something, (an object, an event, something happening) or in someone, (a person or God).  When we place our trust in something or someone we are not always guaranteed that that thing won't break or that person won't be faithful and then leave us broken, hopeless and hurt.  There is however one person who is faithful no matter what and that person is God. He is ALWAYS faithful. Hebrews 6:13- 19 says

"When God made his promise to Abraham, since there was no one greater for him to swear by, he swore by himself, ¹⁴ saying, “I will surely bless you and give you many descendants.” ¹⁵ And so after waiting patiently, Abraham received what was promised. ¹⁶ People swear by someone greater than themselves, and the oath confirms what is said and puts an end to all argument. ¹⁷ Because God wanted to make the unchanging nature of his purpose very clear to the heirs of what was promised, he confirmed it with an oath. ¹⁸ God did this so that, by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled to take hold of the hope set before us may be greatly encouraged. ¹⁹ We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure.

The highlighted section is the who reason we're able to have hope, it's because God can't lie and he is unchangeable. He is always faithful, meaning we can be secure in Him and have peace.

To sum up my thinking...

We have hope because of God and who he is. Without him we don't have hope.

The really scary thing is that there are MILLIONS of people out there who are either not a Christian or haven't heard about Jesus. Where are they placing their hope? In other Gods? Idols? Things? People? Do they even have peace and confidence in what they are hoping for in the future?  Are they getting hurt because they are let down by all these things?

This kind of encourages me to go out and tell the world about Jesus - to shine my light so that people can come to know Jesus and to discover the wonderful peace that comes from placing our hope in Him and not people or things.

xKx

Faith, Hope, The Bridge, Misuderstanding and then I got it...

We've just started working through a small group study by Andy Stanley called Faith, Hope and Luck.  Last night Andy was defining faith and it kind of made me hit a "wobbly" and really mess with my head.

When it comes to explaining what faith is most Christians quote Hebrews 11.1 "Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see." My basic understanding of faith was that faith is believing that God is going to do what he says he is going to do, because He is faithful, trustworthy and doesn't break His promises.  

Andy explained that between hope and faith there is a bridge between hope and faith.  First he explained hope as something that we would like to happen, by using the analogy of calling someone to ask if they want to have lunch with. He hoped they would meet him for lunch, (something he would like to happen), but to have faith that they were going to meet him for lunch something needed to happen.  The person had to call back and say they were going to meet you for lunch.  If they never did this, there was not “promise”, meaning that you did not have a guaranteed outcome.  Hope, as I understand, is therefore an outcome that you desire.   

Andy then defined Faith as being certain of who God is and being certain that what He says is going to happen, will happen.  This is where the paw-paw hit the fan for me last night.  I then totally freaked out and was like, "if you're being certain of who God is and that he'll do what he says he will do, then you can't link it to personal promises God makes to you."  I can have faith that God will provide, heal etc. because that is who he is and he does that.  When it came to God promising something to you like being a missionary, or who you'll marry or what you'll do with your life  because there isn't a certain outcome  because t can be influenced by sin, bad choices, other people etc., so you can only hope that will happen because you can make bad choices. I was really stuck on this and felt like it was pointless having faith in something that wasn't guaranteed and could change, in other words something that wasn't guaranteed.  I couldn't see past my confusion, or my heightened emotions  because of this.  I was just stuck and it never made sense to me, and the more I tried to explain how I understood it, the more worked up I got and the more frustrated I got.  It literally felt like I was going to explode and I couldn't process anything.


....BUT then this morning I had a light bulb moment while I was brushing my teeth and it all made sense.  I started to think about it again and I broke it down.  Faith is being certain of who God is. 

I know who God is, he's good, faithful, powerful, in control, trustworthy etc. 

The second half is knowing that God will do what he says he is going to do. 

We know that God will do what he says he will do, because of who He is and not because of the outcome.  I can have faith that God will do what he says he will do because of who He is.  

After I had that thought the light bulb went on and I was like, "Oh". We have faith in God and NOT the situation. We place our faith in God and not the outcome.  I was looking at the outcome and saying, if it's not guaranteed then why have faith.  That's wrong, that's basing my faith on the situation and not God.  God determines the outcome, he knows what is good for us and he always works the good for us.   We shouldn't let our faith be determined by the outcome or the promise made to us. Our faith needs to be and has to be in God.

.... So after all the emotion and a good nights sleep I was finally able to understand and see the light.

xKx