A talk and response.

Warning: I am a Christian and my tone of voice should reflect that. Sorry if I cause offence, but it shows that I am convinced of what I say. I write so much only to explain my views so people can understand them better.




Preface

Love is real. God is real to Christians because He is a God of perfect love. Therefore logic and reasoning cannot be used to show God is real as He is first truly known by Christians through a change of heart. Logic and reasoning require human effort, yet it is clear that love and grace is something which is undeserved – something you cannot do anything to earn. Therefore if one wants to show that God is real, one does it through love, as only the love of God can touch people’s hearts into conviction. Logic and reasoning is from the human mind. Only the perfect love of God can give Christians - present past or future an assurance and conviction. In the same way that laws cannot change human hearts, arguments from the mind cannot change human hearts. I have written a true love story, the one from God in order that He can touch your heart and give you conviction. May God bless you through these words!
 

Common misconceptions answered

Only God is true love - You might think that God is self-centred or threatening by saying "Love me or hell" - God, because He shows no love to those that don't love Him after life on earth, but if only God is the true source of love, then it becomes "Love Love or no love" - Love. If you treat God as the only source of true love, then hell is just an absence of love because God’s not there.

The only ‘rules’ of this ‘religion’ are to love God and to love other people. But if you know the love of God then you’ll naturally have a love for all people to know this true love because you won’t want anyone to be in the absence of this love. And God’s love never goes away. It is always there if you choose to know it; it’s unconditional. I just want to show that God is true love. All other rules in the bible are to check whether this selfless love is in action.

If I didn’t believe what I say is true, then there wouldn’t be a need for me to say it. I want people to know the truth because it is out of love.

My proof for God lies with love because God shows His love through Jesus and what He did on earth. Of course theoretically if God made all things, then all things should point to God, but the world is not as it was originally created by Him which I shall explain later so practically the answer is no. And of course God has other attributes which man cannot fully understand but I want people to truly know Him for who He is from the heart, not the mind. So I can only speak of love to show a real God of love but I'm definitely not saying that He is only love. So if you say that I'm deluded with love that is fine because I believe in a God who is the source of true love.

What about those poor people who don't know this love? That's the point; all this writing shows that I care for those people. If you understood this same love then you wouldn’t be afraid of telling others everything I have written here because you know its true love. Remember all questions regarding Christianity can be answered with the unconditional and eternal love of God through Christ whether it is in words or actions.

If you think that Christianity has caused evil, then I am sorry that you have this impression. There would be no evil if there was perfect love, so people have been evil because they have missed the whole point of living by the true love of God. You either know love or you don't. And I say that God is true love, so you either know true love or you don't, and unfortunately people who have claimed to know God have not shown that true love of God. If God is true love, how can you say that you know God but not know true love? True love is from the heart, not the mind.


Loving God is being a slave?

But if you love what you do then you don't feel like a slave because it's what you want to do. From my view I'm not being forced to do anything. His only command is to love Him because God is love. Humans are not slaves to God because they can choose to disobey their owner but they would only do that if they didn't see that the owner was the only source of true love. And if Christianity is solely based on love and relationships between God and man, then does this take away our humanity by God asking Christians to love all people?


I know its cliché but,

God loves you/Jesus loves you!

Nathaniel







 

Religion?? Church Ubi talk September 6/9/09 (revised/Facebook note) Nathaniel

I guess that humans have always had a fascination with the supernatural. In ancient times people worshiped the sun, the moon, the stars, trees, wind, dirt, animals.. whatever. Nowadays, humans are more advanced in thinking, with technology, and because we’ve got more control over the environment we don’t tend to believe in these supernatural powers anymore. Evolutionists say that religion was invented by the human brain to give meaning to life. Of course people today might not be so religious, but are still open to the possibility that there is a God, or some other intelligent life form in outer space.


*Short quiz* hands up & name the religion! Book of the dead, Zeus, Quran, Tom Cruise......

So as you can there are many religions out there. Some have rules which you follow to be a good person. Some treat their religious leaders as a God, holy and untouchable. Some do certain things, sacrifices to please their Gods so that they will get better luck or fortune. Ancient cultures had a Rain or Sun god to help their crops grow. Humans are manipulative beings. If it benefits us, we’ll take it. Fortune tellers, Feng Shui, superstitious charms, the lot; we’ll use the help of these ‘spirits’.


The truth is humans seem insignificant; even though we might be able to shape the environment around us and the world, we don’t control everything. There have always been greater powers. There are earthquakes, volcanoes, and animals that wouldn’t mind if they ate you for lunch. There’s asteroid strikes, if you look at it the earth is a tiny part of the universe. Surely there’s something more powerful out there. And its during these times when we feel helpless, that we call on these higher powers for help. You can see how technology has changed our beliefs, we’re no longer helpless creatures that need Gods to send us rain, but that hasn’t changed everything. Hands up if you have prayed to God when things have gone wrong? ...I think we all have.


But religion not only deals with life on earth, there’s the afterlife. As humans we don’t like to think we’re insignificant, we die and that’s the end. No we want to live forever; we want to be powerful just like God. It all started with Adam and Eve, and man has rejected God ever since.


But what makes which religion right? Well, we’re going to do a *design your own religion exercise.* If you could get into groups of ? Just scribble down or draw pictures of your religion. Maybe a rough idea of how you would get to heaven? What rules? Who are the leaders, Gods? Religious texts?


So who had laws as part of their religion? I think all religions have their rules of what to do or what not to do. And there’s the important part of what to do to get into the afterlife or heaven. But how can you be sure your way is the right way to be saved?


Let me say that laws don’t work. They don’t fix the problem of people doing wrong. The truth is nobody is perfect and definitely not good enough for God’s standard. Romans 3:23 says “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Imagine after you die and you come face to face with God and you’re trying to say that you’ve done this and this on earth. What could you say to impress the creator of the universe to let you into heaven? Do you think what you’re idea of good matters? It’s not what you think; it’s what God says is good that matters. And God says no one is good enough. No sacrifice, nothing humans can do can make us good in God’s eyes. We all have done wrong and God’s laws for the Israelites given to Moses show us where we’ve gone wrong.


Obeying laws does not make you right with God. It is only a measure for you to see how far you are from God’s perfect standard. Now here we have a ruler. It’s used to measure stuff. Now let’s say at each millimetre of this ruler there is a rule from God. Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy; they’re filled with them. Thall shall not steal, lie, murder, commit adultery, worship idols, blaspheme, dishonour our parents.... and where we’ve disobeyed, we’ve snapped the ruler. It doesn’t matter where you snap it, or if you’ve only snapped it once, it’s broken, and we all have failed in God’s eyes. Yep, we are sinners.


So what is this ruler a measure of? It is a measure of perfect love. It is the measure of love between you and God and those around you. We’ve seen this before in Matthew Chapter 22 when Jesus answers the Pharisees question of what the Greatest Commandment is. Jesus quotes from Deuteronomy. “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: “Love your neighbour as yourself.” All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”Matthew 22:37-40.


So being a Christian is not about obeying rules. Going to church, doing ushering, singing, it’s not about what you do, a robot could do these things, but it’s what in your heart that matters. If you do things out of duty and habit, you’ll just get tired and lack the motivation. Things done out of love, you’ll only have that desire to do more. Who gets sick of doing things they love?


So what’s the only way to get into heaven? It’s not through laws, but only through a change of heart. It’s a change from a heart from yourself to one for God. Jesus has done everything for us that we could not. He fulfilled the law; He was perfect love in God’s eyes. And by His love and mercy, God took the punishment for our disobedience and rejection of Him. Think of it like this. You owed God something, but He cancelled the debt. It’s the same with sin. We deserved to be punished by death, to be separated from God and His love – i.e. hell, but God Himself has taken that punishment for us. By law, it’s paid for. But to fix the real problem, you have to acknowledge what God did, and thank Him for it. Laws can put people in jail, get you caned with a ruler at school (ask your parents), but laws cannot change hearts. Only love can. And only God’s love can turn hearts and save souls to be truly free from sin.

You might ask how can we be sure about all this, is Jesus the only way to heaven?


Flick with me to John Chapter 3. Here we have Nicodemus, a religious leader of that time; and surely a religious leader would know how to get to heaven. Basically it goes like this. Jesus says “I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.”And Nicodemus takes this literally as being born again from his mother’s womb. Jesus replies, “I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit.” Then verse 12, “I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things? No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven – the Son of Man.” Then I’m sure we all know what John 3:16 says, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”


So we can see that Nicodemus is clearly lost. He has no idea what Jesus is saying. What Jesus is saying is not a physical rebirth but a spiritual one; a change from the heart. But what Jesus really says is that He is God, and He is the way to heaven. Nicodemus doesn’t know yet, but we know that Jesus died in place of us on the cross so that we might be saved. You can be sure that Jesus is the only way to heaven, because He says He’s the only one to have come from heaven and of course He rose again from the dead before going back to heaven. Jesus is God; of course He has the authority to talk about heavenly things.

For us Christians, what Jesus has done for us on the cross means that we no longer live by rules but by grace. It is by grace we are saved, not by works. We rely on Jesus to fulfil the law, He is perfect and through Him and what he did on the cross we are made perfect. We ask God into our hearts, to change us, to have him rightfully at the centre of our lives as Lord. Christianity is not about rules. Take the Pharisees for example - Nicodemus. They thought being good meant strictly keeping the law. They made other laws to stop them disobeying the laws God gave them. They missed the whole point. Obeying the laws doesn’t make you right with God. It’s only through repenting of your sins to God, being sorry and saying thank you by embracing Jesus - God’s love and grace in our hearts; that’s the way to being saved. Not religion. It is about a personal relationship with God through Jesus alone. Jesus is “the way, the truth and the life”. What kind of life is this? It’s a life of grace and love, for God, and for everyone around us, that they too might know the love of God and be saved.


I’ll finish with an extract from Philip Yancey’s book, ‘What’s so Amazing about grace?’


“During a British conference on comparative religions, experts from around the world debated what, if any, belief was unique to the Christian faith. They began eliminating possibilities. Incarnation? Other religions had different versions of gods appearing in human form. Resurrection? Again, other religions had accounts of return from death. The debate went on for some time until C.S. Lewis wandered into the room. “What’s the rumpus about?” he asked, and heard in reply that his colleagues were discussing Christianity’s unique contribution among world religions. Lewis responded “Oh, that’s easy. It’s grace.”

After some discussion, the conferees had to agree. The notion of God’s love coming to us free of charge, no strings attached, seems to go against every instinct of humanity. The Buddhist eight-fold path, the Hindu doctrine of Karma, the Jewish covenant, and Muslim code of law – each of these offers a way to earn approval. Only Christianity dares to make God’s love unconditional.”


 

Acknowledgments

Thanks to God; without His love and grace, and sending His son Jesus to take our place, none of this would be possible. We wouldn’t be able to enjoy the rich and rewarding relationship that we can have with Him, and there would be no hope of salvation.

Thanks to the UBI prep team, led by Bernard and Karen, for their guidance and encouragement.

Thanks to Carl, who gives those awesome and inspiring talks at CampusBibleStudy. (especially the one on Religion during the Think! Mission 09) UNSW is blessed to have such a great ministering leaders, and the large community of Christian students who make up CBS.

And Happy Father’s Day to the heavenly father above – God!

God bless you all, whoever is reading this! May the good news of Jesus continue to turn hearts around set lives free!


1 Timothy 4:12 (NIV)

Don't let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity.



 

 

Religion? No. It’s Relationships.

Hey Paul (and whoever is reading this),


I will try to answer all problems you have with Christianity here by comparing them to relationships between you and you future family. After all, I said that Christianity was about relationships ie: between Creator and creation, God and man etc. And family is something I hope we can all relate to. I will use this analogy to cover point by point.




Grace


So let’s say you are a father with lots of children. And as a responsible father you love your children, because after all they were made from a part of you. However, your children are rebels. You love them. But they don’t love you back. No matter what you do, you drive them around, you provide them food, they always manage to do something to hurt you. The saddest thing is, the one you love most, your first-born, runs away from your house because he/she thinks you’re boring. You’re left with children in your house, they’re bad but they choose to stay in your home. You want the one you love most to return to you, but basically they’ve left home for good and don’t want you in their life anymore. They choose to live without you. Nothing you can do about that. Oh by the way, they’ve taken some of your possessions as well your youngest child with them. You’ll never see them again. I’m sure they’re having a great time, by themselves without you. How do you feel? There’s nothing you can do to make them change their mind. They’ve decided what’s best for themselves, without asking your permission even though you thought you loved them to the best you could. They say you’re old fashioned.



What about the ones that do stay in your house? Ok, they’re not perfect, not your favourite children, not too good at school, didn’t inherent your good looks but they are still your children, and you love them as your children. They’ve chose to stay behind with you at home, lazy children, can’t afford a job to move out. Things don’t change. They are your children.



When you die. Who cares? The children that moved out, and had fun by themselves, without you? Or the ones that stayed at home. You provided everything for them. They don’t have anyone to look after them now like you did. Of course they miss you. They’ll realise that you did you best to care for them even though they weren’t the best children. They’re crying for you to come back, and promise you that they’ll make sure you know that they appreciate you. They say sorry. They say thank you for what you’ve done. But it’s too late.


Now at this point, all your children see a vision of you in their dreams as though you were back with them in person. Which of your children are happy to see you? Who misses you the most? Who wants you back and never wish they have to let go of you again? But some have forgotten who you are. They don’t want to live in the past anymore.



But say you didn’t die you had a heart attack. You’re in hospital. Who visits you? Who doesn’t care at all about you? When you recover, they realise what you meant to them as a father. They want you back. They finally return your love. That is a real relationship. But there’s a broken relationship; the children who chose to leave home. It doesn’t mean that you don’t love them still. You still do, but they don’t have a heart for you at all. No matter how much those two of your children love each other, they’re happy without you. You have no choice but to leave them in peace. You know they do everything that you would wish them to do for you, like take you to concerts, overseas trips and the like, but the problem is they do all that for their own enjoyment without you. They don’t acknowledge you as their father. They’re ashamed to take you because they say you’re old fashioned. You can imagine that they can only feel the same as you if they have do have children and their children treat them the same way as they treated you. But you know that they’re not the type to settle down. They’ll never know how you feel. You can only look at it in sadness. They’ve rejected you. They don’t need you at all. The creation has happily rejected the suffering Creator. You recover from the heart attack and return home to your children who now really do understand your care and love and return it back. They treasure you in their hearts. That’s enough to put a smile on your face. Your love for your children is grace. They didn’t deserve it. All of them weren’t perfect children, and all have caused you hurt at some stage. But how rewarding is it to see that grace and love returned.



You can see how what God wants is for His creation to love Him. They same way you would want your children to love you. No matter how good people are to each other, no matter how much your children love to spend time with each other, if they choose to reject you, there’s nothing you can do except love them in the hope that they will return it. Some day. It’s not guaranteed. And you wait for them because you love them. Some will. Some won’t. But you can’t wait forever; some children die before their parents do. And all along you just wanted for your children to know that you loved them. But in vain. They chose to live a life without you. Creation without the creator. Creation rejects the Creator and there’s nothing He can do but to show love in the hope that they might see how much they were loved despite what they did and return it one day. Except here, God is the source of love, same with you being a parent. But there are no other parents out there to give love. And only in the presence of God is there love. And when you are fully removed from His presence you will not be able to find love because God is love. Christians who truly know the love of God really treasure it and are selfless in sharing it. They have a love for all people because they see love through God's eyes and they have personally experienced what the love of God can do.


The two different perspectives - Logic and reason is from the mind but love is from the heart. The father’s view is completely different from the children’s view yet they both make their own sense.

Love and grace defies logic. That's why it’s so hard for the rational mind to understand it sometimes. It's not what we deserve but hey, our hearts can feel it unless it’s hardened. But it shows how everyone can associate with love. Not everyone is born with rational thinking and some people develop it better than others. We were made to love because we were created out of love whether it is out of wedlock, or God as creator. Love can overcome rational thinking. Love is from God. Rational thinking is from man. We constantly struggle between the two; emotional bias for example. And as the rational brain develops the more we rely on our own ability, the more we are resistant to the love and grace from others because we think we are better than others. We don't need them because we have a bigger brain. Born to be proud and selfish. Just like the children who've ran away; they think they know the whole world and what's best for them. We know the reality. Love is the opposite. Selfless, humble, ...if only there was perfect love, the world would be a much better place. Heaven perhaps? Rational thinking gets in the way of love. It defies logic to receive something you don't deserve. As I mentioned in my note, God doesn't care about logic or rules; it's about love and relationships. This will always be a part of God's love and superior wisdom. And it is powerful to all those who have experienced it. God's love is eternal. This is the relationship between and Christians and God. That's why you hear 'Heavenly Father' and 'God's children' in the bible. It's God's family.

I forgot to mention the mother. You love your wife, and your wife loves you. Ideally, you guys love each other so much it's a perfect match! Unity in marriage. United in love for your children. She feels the same way as you do, she understands, she's your soul mate, she was there with you in the beginning, before you had all this trouble with your children, at least your heart attack made some of your children realise how much you meant to them.

You can also see that if it's only through the children's eyes, it's a different perspective. Especially the ones that left home, they don't feel that anything’s wrong. We're the same, we look at people and say they're good by our own standards. Only through the father's eyes and heart can you see that they are not good children. They can love each other how ever the like but they don't love you the parent.




Genesis and the start of creation in terms of relationships -The 'fairy tale' has meaning and makes perfect sense with God's desire to restore the relationship between Himself and His creation. Also explains why the world is so stuffed up.



One very important thing to add. When your wife first gives birth to your child, are you happy? How long will that happiness last? At the start they might obey your every word because thats all they know. You teach them names of objects and colours and they repeat what you say. It's good that they listen to you. It's a good relationship, you show them love by teaching them and the return it by obeying you. It's perfect really. But no child is perfect. Your children are only really rebels when they learn to say no. When they choose to say no and disobey you. You still have that happiness from when they were born? For the first time, you have a right to be angry.Your child no longer has a perfect relationship with you. They've stuffed it. You think you can still show them they same love and care when they were a toddler? They're not innocent anymore. They know that they don't have to do what you tell them. Of course you know you're right because you're the parent. You see the world around us. It's not innocent. Things decay and die. It's not perfect. It's because of the broken relationship between Creator and creation, just like you and your child; a.k.a. sin. Now if it was still in a perfect relationship, God the source of love and life, will gladly give these things to you. But because we've disobeyed Him as a creation, just like your child, this disobedience creates a barrier from you giving the perfect love. It's their problem that they don't accept it. You've done nothing wrong as a responsible parent. They're the ones not choosing to receive it. And so in this way our world has been separated from God's complete presence - it's the creation's rejection. And without His full blessing and love, the once perfect, innocent world is rotting away. It's a stuffed up world, because He is the one that sustains life, and the relationship has been broken. But that doesn't mean the father stops loving his child. You see it's not completely stuffed up. There's still some good in the world; because you don't stop loving your children just because they disobeyed you once and intentionally hurt you. (this should really go at the start of my analogy)

You can see how if one person is convinced about the love of God through what they've experienced, then everything falls into place, the bible, the meaning of life, relationships between all people and God. If this love is real, and it makes sense, then why can't one be convinced that God is real? Throughout the bible - God is love. Faith is belief without evidence? Historical evidence is just a bonus in many ways, the love of God is what really matters.


Hope this analogy clears what my talk was about.


God bless you!
And hope to talk to you soon,


Nathaniel



 


Religion? No. God’s love is real.

Thankyou for reading this far. There are more points to cover.


The love from God in human hearts is different to man’s rational thinking.

We've now established that God's love, i.e. God, is real because He exists in changed Christian hearts today. It is God who changes hearts. Those who know me, know that I haven't always been an open person. The power of God gives boldness to those who are shy. This is what real love is; it's open to all people. A father has love for all his children. Ask a Christian today how God has changed and touched their hearts. Or read Christian biographies. Each one will have their own testimony, its not some brain-washing scam; it's the wonder of God's love. Everyone will know God through different ways. Yet it is the same love from God through Jesus - God's love displayed for all to see, hear or read about on earth. You can see what God has done throughout history in changing lives. Even as we speak God's love is reaching out to people's hearts. He desires for them to know His love, just as you would have your children to know that you love them.

Who need's rational thinking when there's perfect love? And especially love from the One who is the source of love, life and wisdom. We use rational thinking to promote ourselves, career, job, make money for ourselves. If there was perfect love there would be no need for money. Perfect love means unity, complete trust, no fear, peace, joy, sharing, fulfilling the needs of others. This is the love of God. Like an innocent toddler with you as father. He trusts you, because he trusts that you'll never put them in danger. It's what you're supposed to do. They're not scared of you. There's no fear because they've never seen you angry. They are innocent. They are assured of your love. Where there is perfect love, there is no fear. The Christian does not do deeds out of fear of being punished by God. The Christian is assured of God's love, through what Jesus has done. They know the love of God. They have a restored relationship with the Father. They know that He's in control. Their hearts are rich with His love. God's anger has already been born by Himself. He suffered so that you could live, restored in his love, without fear. You know the heart of God in the same way that your children can see that your heart is for your other children to acknowledge you and your love for them.


The Bible - Your record of ways that you have shown love to your children.

It's not that you haven't tried telling those lost children that you love them. You've written them letters, you've asked your children at home to try and talk to them, you've sent gifts, letters warning them that there'll eventually be a point of no return. You've done your best. You've even had a heart attack from all of this distress. They've heard about it from someone else. But in the end, they never came to visit you at hospital or after your recovery. It might have come across their minds. But to them, you don't mean a thing. They never knew that what you did for them was out of love. You can hope and wait, but you've got the feeling that they'll never know. After all, you were that close to dying. To them it makes no difference whether you're dead or alive. The creation ignores the Creator even though there's a record of his love through history. Your children at home can testify about the love from you and how good that relationship is, but what use is that if the other children don't listen? You have literally gone through a hell of a life, and I'm sure you're happy with the children that choose to stay at home with you. They are the ones who acknowledge your love. They've experienced it personally. The ways in which the you have loved your children are recorded down in a diary, say a photo album. Your children at home look at it, and say thank you and are grateful for what you have done. It reminds them of how much they are loved. Especially when they remember your heart attack. That's what changed their hearts. This is what the bible means to Christians. It is a record of God's relationship with man, and it is by his grace and love that he even chooses to restore the relationship. If you were not a responsible father, which is possible, you could have just left your children. Why have all this trouble and hurt? But there would be no one else to show them love that a father would to his children. What happens when you give the same photo album to the children who've left home? Meaningless. They'd rather their own album. Nothing to do with you or your home. No trace of you at all. All the evidence of your love is there in your photo album that you've intentionally kept so there's no excuse for them not to know what you've done in the past for them, as well as all the different ways that you've tried to communicate to those children who've ran away. They treat it as rubbish.


Dealing with sin - Your children not always returning you their love

As I said before you know have a perfect relationship with those children who choose to stay with you at home. You love them, and they fully acknowledge you as their father and your love for them. It’s perfect love, because you’re not angry anymore, there’s no need to. That heart attack has made them really treasure it and they know that it’s not worth going back to the way things were. They don’t want to see you unhappy or angry. But either way there’s no need for you to because they really do understand what it means to treasure your love. They know it won’t happen again. Perfect love gives them that assurance. No need to fear. But you know, children aren’t always that perfect. Things weren’t as bad as they used to be, but there’s that occasional act of disobedience. That’s fine. You forgive them because they’re willing to accept all your love for them. They have that desire to know your love and that’s all that matters. So you tell them the ways in which they can have less time to disobey you. You tell them to be surrounded by your love, so they won’t forget it during anytime of the day. You tell them to live by your love. You tell them to have the same love that you have for other children; all children. Your love is present in the hearts of the other children at home. So the times when you’re not in the same room with your children, you tell them to keep each other company to be reminded of your love. After all perfect love unites. You know that the more time your children spend by themselves it’s easier for them to forget you. They have your photo album but its only heart-warming memories. Your love lives on and exists in the other children at home. Perfect love unites your children regardless of their differences, drives out their fear, gives them courage to reach out to other children because they want the other children to realise how wonderful it is to have this restored relationship. Really, if they always spent time with each other, and never by themselves, they would be never bored, and always occupied, no time to do anything else but to live in your love. To them it’s the best thing that they’ve ever known; being in the complete presence of your love. But if they truly knew your love, they would see that your love is for all your children to come back home and acknowledge you as their father so that they might also have this rich relationship of perfect love.




Prayers for signs/miracles today? You’ve done all that you could for those lost children.

As a father, you’ve done everything that you could for those children who’ve ran away from home. You’ve given them gifts, tickets to concerts, photos, letters, signs to show that you love them. You even arranged to have a chat, to personally tell them that you love them and that all you want is for them to acknowledge you as their father and love. That’s the purpose of you doing all these things. Not to show how rich you are. That defeats the purpose. You know that the broken relationship between you and them is what really matters. You want to restore it. Finally you have that heart attack. Your children have left them a message on their answering machine to come and visit you. It is news of death. If this won’t convince them then nothing will. There is no longer a need to send them any more gifts. You’ve done all you could. When your children who chose to stay at home asks you for gifts you’ll gladly give them because they already know your love. They know that the reason you gave them gifts in the first place was to show how much you love them. The other children ask for gifts. You know they won’t treasure it because they don’t know it’s a sign of your love. There’s no need for you to give them anything. Even if they heard the news of your death and it wouldn’t change their hearts one bit.



The meaning behind the words is what really matters - A true love story?

If your heart isn't touched at all, please read all of this again. Including my talk. If it has, then you know that God is speaking to you. God speaks directly to your heart, just like you would want to talk to the hearts of your children and want them to know that you love them. I thank God because He is perfect love. He is real. Ask God to change your heart, and show you what true love really is all about. God has always had the same love through history. And He's always had the power to change hearts. God doesn't change, He'll be waiting for you, just like you would for your children to know your love. God's love is real. It always has, from the beginning to the end. Never changes. Up to you to open up your heart. You know what the father feels like. The lost children don't know what they're missing out on.

One true love. One true God. Love and grace defies logic. God is God because he cannot be seen through man’s logic and reasoning. This is the wonder of God’s love. You can only see God through your heart in the only way you can see love through your heart. Logic and reasoning are for robots, they can’t feel love. Logic doesn’t tell you to cry when your child dies. Some things you have to experience it yourself and these feelings are real. I can only pray that God shows mercy on you to open up your heart to see the truth. Sorry if you thought that it was about being open minded. It’s about being open hearted.

The day that my love for you isn’t real, the day you’ll know that my God isn’t real. I say all this because I know that God loves you through Jesus. He suffered, God humiliated Himself on the cross for your sake so that you could know real life and love. I have that same love for you. We can agree to disagree but do not forget what I have said. God’s love for you doesn’t change. Your heart can.

In the end God gives you a choice. You make choices from the heart. With rational thinking you only do what you think is right. And even then not everyone has the same reasoning ability so that would be unfair if one could rationalise the existence of God while others couldn’t. God gives you the freedom to choose. Humans are not robots that strictly follow orders from their creator according to logic and reasoning. That’s why we have hearts that tell us to do things otherwise.

The best thing to do now is read the bible in its entirety. God’s love may exist in Christian hearts today, but the bible is a record God’s love throughout history. See if what I said fits in the whole picture regarding Christianity as a faith built on love and relationships. A father’s love for his children lasts till the day he dies. God’s love for His children gives assurance, life, and unity in love, no fear, peace, hope, comfort, strength and courage, selfless desires and above all, an open heart for all the other children to know this love. Can you say you know your God? I can say so because God’s love is real. You may rely on logic and reasoning but I rely on love and God is love. If you truly knew your God, you wouldn’t know just about them, you would know them in a direct personal loving relationship like the one between you and your father. An ideal one of course; one where there is perfect love. If God is truly love, then I am convinced that He exists. There is no other love like it. One can only know God through His love and grace that is in Jesus. Jesus, His life, death and resurrection, is the ultimate sign of God’s love. God, Jesus – God on earth, Holy Spirit – the presence of Jesus in Christian hearts, the Bible – a record of God’s love in history, God’s perfect love is eternal and ever powerful.

I think I’ve said all that I’ve needed to say about love and relationships.

And thanks Paul for asking these very important questions.

God’s love is always the answer.
Cheers, always praying, and God willing I will see you : )

Nathaniel






Final words from the heart.

Old Testament/New Testament – Same God?

Paul you yourself have said, or in the words of Richard Dawkins - a man that does not know the perfect love of God, that the God of the Old Testament is a most unloving God compared to the God of the New Testament. This makes sense because God’s anger has not been taken away by Jesus. God has every right to be angry because creation has chosen to reject the Creator. You as a father have every right to be angry with your children who choose to disobey you. Jesus fulfils God’s commands and in doing so takes away God’s wrath for His creation. The earth has not felt the complete presence of God’s love until Jesus walked on earth. Thus it is natural to read the bible and to see clearly that before Jesus, God’s wrath is justice; while in the presence of Jesus on earth till now - as Jesus’ love exists in Christian hearts today, that God has no need to be angry. You have done all you could as a father. You had that heart attack. That is all that is necessary to touch the hearts of those children who choose to return to home in the presence of your love. There’s no need to be angry at the children at home because they desire to live in your love and there’s no need to send any more gifts to the lost children because the news of your death still exists and is all that is necessary to touch the hearts of the children who have not yet returned home.


Doubts? Really knowing God’s heart.

Knowing love and grace does not require logic and reasoning. Logic and reasoning require human effort. Effort is work. Now read Ephesians 2:4-10. Love and grace you cannot do anything to earn. You cannot do anything to know God except to know and accept His love and grace. You’ll know it is God’s love because God’s love is perfect and never changes. Who gets tired of doing things they love? If God’s love is perfect, then you’ll never get tired. But such a perfect relationship can only exist in heaven where you are in the complete presence of God’s perfect love and there is nothing there to distract you from this love. You’ll never get tired, and never go hungry, and won’t have a need for man’s logic and reasoning; because God’s perfect love, the source of love, life and wisdom is enough. Thanks be to God! Love is real. Once you realise that God is true love then God is real.


Need proof of love?

Paul, if you claim your God is also perfect love, then prove it. That means you are assured, not afraid to die to tell everyone about it because you want others to know the truth because you are convinced. Perfect love unites you with those of your belief even though others hate you for it, but because you know it’s true you’re not afraid because you’ve seen other people change hearts, cry, risking their lives. It is the same love recorded in history, the bible, Christian biographies. It is love for the truth that God is the only source of love and no one should miss out. You see others with this same love that causes conviction so that only encourages you to do more. Can you really say that you know the love of your God because you’ve seen that same love through history and you know that you are no different? Paul, if you say you know this same love, why don’t you try it by putting it into action. Risk your life; do not be afraid because you know it’s true. Love with words but without actions is meaningless. Show me this love in person, and yes we shall meet and I will show you what true love means.

May God’s perfect love be known to all those who choose to open their hearts!

Sorry if I do sound arrogant, but I only say what I know is true. And I say so much all because of the love of God. Do not be sidetracked by the grammatical errors. That is using logic and reasoning. It is the meaning that matters. This is a true love story, not an argument, essay or thesis!

God willing, I really do hope all this has touched your heart in some way. It means that what I have said is true. May your hearts be truly opened to see the love of God.

Nathaniel

I do not use logic and reason because the perfect love of God is true wisdom. I can only talk of the love of God from my heart because it is true.

You see it as you choose, from the father's eyes or the children. But I say what I say from the heart, not the mind. And I have said my God is a God of love.



All that I’ve written is out of love, not for the sake of arguing but because I’m convinced of this perfect love of God. My words are proof of this perfect love in writing. I can only try to show you how God is love whether it is through words or actions. I can only pray and hope that you can see what I do comes from the love of God. Love for others to know the truth, and not afraid to hide it. I hope that’s clear.