Mike’s Faith and Religion Blog

Hello there…  Here’s some copy and paste blogging.  I don’t know who originally wrote this as it was only forwarded to me in Friendster by Killian…

I’m posting / sharing it here as it seems to fit the life of most of us.  Hope you enjoy it.

When things in your life seem almost too much to handle, when 24 hours in a day are not enough, remember the mayonnaise jar and the coffee.

One of the students raised her hand and inquired what the coffee represented. The professor smiled. “I’m glad you asked. It just goes to show you that no matter how full your life may seem, there’s always room for a couple of cups of coffee with a friend.”

My own personal thoughts…

Indeed most of us would spend most of our energies doing little things when we are supposed to focus on the bigger and more important things.  It’s probably because we were raised in a world where many consider the small things as big and vice versa but the truth is the “corny” things in life are the best.

Live a good life!

God… who is he or she?  Religious ideals definitely played a major role in this world we live.  Wars are fought, lost by many, won by some in the name of God.  Each major religion in the world surely has a story of a victorious war where their God fought by their side.

Other than wars, most (if not all) nations are built with the concept of God in the middle.  Whether that God is supernatural or merely a mundane ideal doesn’t really matter.  Fact is, we all want to be part of something bigger and to most that something bigger is God.  Christians have Jesus, Jews have YHWH, Muslims have Allah, and yes even communists – the so called atheists – have Mao, Marx, and Lenin.

So just who is God?  I think the answer is plain and simple.  God is anyone or anything whom you worship.  It can be a deity or as earthly as money.  Doesn’t really matter.  But who is God to me?  God is the one who made all and he is all, the beginning and the end, the source of all life and the very end of death itself.

Who is God to you?

This is quite an old joke but I’ll share it with you anyway…

A couple had two little boys, ages eight and ten, who were excessively mischievous.

The two were always getting into trouble and their parents could be confident that if any mischief occurred in their town, their two young sons were involved in some capacity. The parents were at their wit’s end as to what to do about their sons’ behavior.

The parents had heard that a clergyman in town had been successful in disciplining children in the past, so they contacted him, and he agreed to give it his best shot. He asked to see the boys individually, so the eight-year-old was sent to meet with him first. The clergyman sat the boy down and asked him sternly, “Where is God?”

The boy made no response, so the clergyman repeated the question in an even sterner tone, “Where is God?”

Again the boy made no attempt to answer, so the clergyman raised his voice even more and shook his finger in the boy’s face, “WHERE IS GOD?”

At that, the boy bolted from the room, ran directly home, and slammed himself in his closet. His older brother followed him into the closet and said, “What happened?”

The younger brother replied, “We are in BIG trouble this time. God is missing and they think we did it!”

Yeah, what the heck or bleep do we really know? The world is a funny place and people are funny beings. We have too many questions and each time we find an answer, we start to come up with more questions. I first heard about this rabbithole years ago while watching the movie Matrix. Now, years after, I heard it again.

The term rabbit hole or rabbithole dates back to the time of the movie Alice in Wonderland wherein Alice follows a white rabbit into a rabbithole that leads to Wonderland. I can’t personally remember the term being used there as it’s been quite some time since I watched the movie but it obviously shows that the rabbit hole somehow leads to the unknown – but how far does it really go?

Good friend Benj Arriola pointed me to the movie “What the Bleep Do We Know!? – Down the Rabbit Hole” which I watched. The movie talks about how science and religion might soon merge into agreement on who OR what god is. If you’re a religious or scientific of a person, then this movie’s for you.

The movie delves into the world of quantum physics where the laws of Newton don’t apply. In this world, electrons can superposition – meaning, they can be in multiple places at the same time (sounds like omnipresence in religion ei?). It also speaks of going back in time and other mind-boggling stuff that could only be explained before by religion and faith. Now, science has proof of what could be god.

It’s a good movie / documentary for to watch and it’s certainly revealing. Find out how deep the rabbithole goes. Get your DVD copy today now by clicking the image below:

Thinking twice? Don’t or you’ll regret it! Get your copy now.

Here in the Philippines, pretenders are often called “plastic” mainly because plastic refers to something synthetic, something unnatural, something untrue.  Two-faced people are also labeled as “plastic” by the vast majority of Filipinos.  So what has this to do with faith?  A lot!

Go to a worship session – no matter what religion you are – and you are most likely to find at least one plastic person.  Someone who professes his faith by mouth and yet does otherwise.  These people are called ‘double-standard’ people and they are the ones who pray to God and curse just minutes after they finish praying.

Unless synthetic faith is dealt with, I don’t think there will be such a thing as true faith.  I myself admit that my faith is oftentimes synthetic and that’s why I know it’s true.  Am I happy with it?  No, I’m not and now I’ve decided to choose and take only one path in my life.  No double standards.

Don’t you agree with me?

Do you believe in God?  Well, as for me, amidst all the turmoils and questions I have in my life, I have to say that I believe in God.  However, if you ask me to prove God’s existence, I will back off.  If someone asks you to prove the existence of God, I also suggest that you stand down and don’t answer.  Why?

The truth of the matter is that no one can really prove beyond reasonable doubt that God exists.  I’m no bible scholar or something like that but I’m pretty sure that in order for someone to believe in God, a reasonable amount of faith would be needed.  So what’s wrong with that?  Here’s why – the bible itself states that “faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen” – Hebrews 11:1.  Furthermore, the author of Hebrews says, “But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.” – Hebrews 16:1.

In other words, people believe in God simply because people are taught that there is a God and by human nature, we tend to believe.  Imagine going to a far out tribe in the middle of nowhere and telling them about the wonders of having a computer.  Tell them everything about this computer and tell them that you have this computer back home.  What will most likely happen in such a scenario?  I would assume that some (if not most) of the tribesmen would believe that a computer does exist eventhough they haven’t seen one yet.  Because of these, none of these tribesmen would be qualified enough to prove the existence of a computer merely because they haven’t even seen one.

The problem is the same with us humans.  We try to prove God’s existence in churches and in debates and yet we forget the fact that none of us is qualified to prove his existence.  The problem even gets bigger if we put science and logic into the mix.  With science and logic, not even an angel can prove the existence of God for the appearance of an angel only proves that angels exists and yet not God.

So who can prove that God exists?  No one except God.  Only God can prove his existence and yet he chooses not to reveal himself to man in ways that we would expect.  Nearly all religion preaches the need of faith in order to believe in a god.  Even the great religious leaders of all time preach the need of faith.

So what’s my final say on this?  Don’t try to prove the existence of God, rather just ask people to believe and if they choose not to, then it’s their choice.

The recent war between Israel and its enemies has been pretty disturbing. It’s hard to take sides. Most Christians and Jews would take the side of Israel but the side of Islam has their points as well. It’s just that I hope this would stop and that peace for all religions and countries would reign in the Middle East.

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Last night, we were having a bible study and our pastor was delivering a topic on offering your life to Christ.  I noticed that each time the pastor mentioned the benefits of offering ones life to Christ, the audience glowed with a smile.  This simple event triggered memories from the past and for some reason I saw the flaw that makes most Christians tired and fall.

I thought, how many people would volunteer for mission work without pay?  And how many would volunteer for mission work with pay?  How many people get excited on topics about wealth and get bored on topics about holiness, not to mention angered?  Then another event in my life came to my mind and this happened just a few days ago.  There was a beggar who asked me for 2 pesos and I automatically answered, without even thinking, wala po (I have none).

How many of us would easily spend 5000 pesos (about $100) in shopping for clothes and find it hard to give a small amount to a beggar?  In fact to some, it is not finding it hard that matters.  Rather, most of us just don’t see the need to give to others.  How many of us would gladly sit beside the president and hesitate to sit beside a leper?  What drives us to do these things?

I think I know and you know the answer.  It’s called BENEFITS.  It is easy to do something if we benefit from it and hard to do something if we get none.  Why do people among all religions desire to follow the teachings of their faith?  I’m not just talking about Christianity here.  I’m talking of all religions?  In every religion, there’s always a promise of something eternal.  It could be eternal life, eternal glory, attaining nirvana, etc.  But take away these promises and you will see the population of these religions drop to a very few.

In our church, each time the pastor makes a challenge, there is always a benefit behind it.  After all, who would take the challenge for nothing?  Maybe a few, perhaps even none.  And so I continued thinking.

Is it really the love for God that drives us to do good?  Or is it the saying that “what you plant is what you shall reap” as well as “do not do unto others what you do not want others to do unto you?”  If God were just another human being with no promises at hand, would we still follow him?  I think a lot of us won’t because it’s simply absurd to do so.

What do you think?

The name Judas has almost always been attached to the word traitor ever since Christianity was born.  However, a newly translated ancient manuscript tells otherwise.

The “Gospel of Judas” tells a much different story than what most Christians think.  In the Gospel of Judas, the so-called traitor actually is more of an obedient disciple simply following what his Master told him.  Apparently, Jesus requested Judas to betray him so that the prophecy will be fulfilled.

More of this story can be found here – Gospel of Judas Tells his Side.

Now, what do I think about this?  Well it is true that Judas performed a pivotal role in Christian history.  Somebody has to betray Jesus.  Otherwise, their won’t be a death nor a resurrection as is being taught by Christianity.  Everything would just be different.  For me, the issue goes beyond the character of Judas.  For me, it goes straight to the character of Jesus.

To Jesus?  Why?

Well, if the Gospel of Judas is true, then it will be safe to say that Jesus manipulated events to “fulfill the prophecies” of the Old Testament.  Get my point?