Can Christians Hasten the Return of Christ?

Question:  Can Christians speed up the coming or the rapture of God’s kingdom through evangelism?

Rivers of Living Water!

“On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, ‘If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’ Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.” (John 7:37-39; English Standard Version)

In a previous article, I spoke about how bread was a staple in our diets.  Even more essential and basic to our survival is water.  We can survive quite a long time without food (Moses, Elijah and Jesus each fasted for 40 days), but we can’t go very long without water.  If you have the tremendous blessing to live in North America, you know we take water for granted.  We use water as if we’ll never run out.  There are five people in my family and our only complaint is whether we’ll have enough hot water to take a shower.  In Palestine during the time of Jesus, water was very scarce.  It was a precious commodity.  Their struggle was to have enough fresh drinking water to survive, much less to take daily baths. 

Good Un-Believers vs. Bad Believers

Question:  Lets say there are two people. One of them is a Christian but he’s a hypocrite, he isn’t a good Christian but he believes in Jesus.  The other person is not a Christian, but he’s a good person when compared to the Christian. A friend of mine had given me this scenario and said he doesn’t believe that the better person (the unbeliever) would not go to heaven when compared to the hypocritical Christian. I don’t know the right way to explain it to him without him getting riled up and him claiming that Christianity is a selfish religion. Could you please help? Thank you.
 

Who Can Come to the Father?

“All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out…No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day.” (John 6:37, 44; English Standard Version)

I am fully convinced that the Bible is the inerrant, infallible, divinely inspired word of God.  My reasons for believing this are many, but one reason that I will share at this time are the existence of paradoxes in the Bible.  If the Bible were merely the work of human beings, there would have been attempts by subsequent redactors to remove all of the paradoxical material in the Bible. 

What is Demon Possession?

Question:  Why and for what reason do evil spirits enter humans and why do they stay there? Do they need to be inside a human being or animal.  When Jesus cast out the demons from the man that lived in the cemetery why did they ask to be send into the herd of pigs?  Could not the demons just came out and wondered around the earth?

The Bread of Life!

“Jesus said to them, ‘I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.’” (John 6:35; English Standard Version)

Bread is considered a staple food—i.e., a basic dietary item.  A person can survive a long time eating and drinking only bread and water.  Bread is such a basic food item that it becomes synonymous for food in general.  We even use the phrase “breaking bread together” to indicate the sharing of a meal with someone.  Bread also plays an integral part of the Jewish Passover meal.  The Jews were to eat unleavened bread during the Passover feast, and then for seven days following as a celebration of the exodus from Egypt.  Finally, when the Jews were wandering in the desert for 40 years, God rained down “bread from heaven” to sustain the nation.

Is Christ Sufficient for All of Our Needs?

Question:  Can you sum up Colossians chapter 2?

Missing the Forest for the Trees!

“You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life.” (John 5:39-40; English Standard Version)

I don’t wear glasses, but I know people who do, and I have heard them tell me stories about frantically trying to find their glasses, while all the time they are resting on top of their heads.  How about searching for your car keys while they are firmly grasped in your hand?  The point is often times we miss the obvious.  It’s not due to lack of effort searching for the answers.  More often than not, it’s because we’re too locked in to a preconception as to what the answer should be, rather than being more objective and allowing the facts to speak for themselves.

What is the True Cost of Discipleship?

Question:  I read that following Jesus is a “costly venture”, and that “it costs us everything.” Does that mean that if I don’t give up everything that I really like, I will be suffering in torments and flame forever after death?
 

Just How Reliable are the Gospel Accounts?

Question:  How is it possible for the Gospels to have been written by eyewitnesses say, 25 years after Christ died, when the avg. age people lived to in Christ’s time was probably 40 – 45 at the max. Also some say that if the Gospels were embellished accounts and false, the people written about, like Government officials, would dispute the reports. But if people lived to 45 at the max during that time, they probably would not be around to say anything different if the accounts were embellished.