Jesus

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A Grandsons Question


Why did Jesus have to die?

My grandson asked me a question the other day that I should have been able to answer, but it caught me by surprise. It went like this; why did people have to kill Jesus?

After some thought, I decided to write it down to keep my thoughts and understanding intact.

It all started back at the beginning of time when God created the heavens and the earth. Oh, I know, some people believe that everything happened by way of a big boom. The thing is, science continues to show that someone had to orchestrate it, even though they don’t want to tell us.

You might ask, what does this have to do with why they killed Jesus? It’s just that the answer takes a bit of background information.

The Bible tells us that the first man and woman were created in Their image, meaning God and his son Jesus. He created the first man and woman (Adam and Eve) to love Him and to live forever. However, he was not going to force them to love Him, he gave them that decision, and today we have that same choice.

But then someone, the Bible tells us it was Satin, or a serpent influenced by Satin, said to them that they didn’t have to listen to God, that they could do their own thing. And they did the one thing God asked them not to do, and that was when everything changed.

Many books are written about the historical information in the Bible, showing the accuracy of the Bible’s written words. But we must step forward through time to give the question an answer.

God used people to tell the story about His son Jesus early on in the Bible. They were the prophets that we read about in the Bible. They tell the story about Jesus hundreds of years before Jesus showed up on earth. The religious leaders at the time of Jesus’ life on earth knew about this but didn’t want to believe Jesus was who he said he was. I can only guess that they didn’t want their lives disrupted. They loved being in control of their people. So, they worked to have Jesus put to death. To prove He was a fake. The thing is, how Jesus would die was also made known hundreds of years before it happened.

So now Jesus was killed and buried. But what happened next is the most important part. After three days of being buried, actually he was place in a tomb, God raised Him from the dead, just as He said He would hundreds of years earlier. God allowed this to prove to everyone that He and His son Jesus are real. That death is not the last thing that happens when we die.

I truly believe that there is a part of us that never dies. Our bodies may get old or maybe sick and eventually give up, but the part of us that makes us who we are, our spirit, our soul, lives on. I believe that is how Jesus was born a baby on earth. God placed his spirit in that unborn baby at the time of conception. I think we’re the same. When we are conceived in our mother’s womb, our spirit is placed in us. And if God created the Heavens and the Earth, He can most definitely do this also. That is what makes us who we are. We are a real person way before we are physically born.

It’s now a matter of where we decide we want to go after we die. Remember, we are given a choice, a mind, and the ability to choose. No one wants to force someone to love them. That is not true love. Our mom or dad does not force us to love them. If they did, we probably wouldn’t love them very much.

So, the answer to the question is that if Jesus did not die and then come back to live again, to be seen by and talked with by hundreds of people, to show people the truth about what was written in the Bible about Him, then everything written in the Bible would not be true. There are many people that have a hard time believing in God, believing in Jesus, even after all these predictions have taken place.

Let’s try to draw a conclusion to the question.

Jesus told us that if we would love Him and His father, tell Him about the things we know we have done wrong, and put our faith in Him, then we become one of his children. And because He love’s us, when we die, we will go to live with Him forever. There is the saying, ‘there is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for a friend.’ Actually, Jesus also said this. And Jesus laid his life down for each of us.

I’m not saying we won’t do anything wrong again after we place our faith in Jesus. But we cannot earn this by doing things we think are good to do, even though we should be doing good things. Going to Heaven when we no longer are alive here on earth is something we put our faith in, something that we believe in, and trust will happen after we die. And if God and Jesus are real, then it’s important that we decide what we want to believe and what we want to put our faith in. Do we want to place our faith that all life is over once our bodies give out and we die? Or do we want to believe in Jesus and everything He told us?

I’ve often stated that either full blown evolution is true or what’s written in the Bible is true. Well, if the Bible tells the true story, then making a decision of where to place our faith is the most important decision we will ever make.

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Contemplation of Thoughts – Science, God and Allah


  1. Science continues to recognize that the chance of life on earth just happening, really needed someone to set it in motion. The real odds of even simple life happening by chance greatly defies the laws of probability.
  2. There are 2.2 billion Christians living today in this world that believe in God (the God of The Bible) as the creator.
  3. There are 1.6 billion Muslims living today in this world that believe in Allah (the God of the Koran) as the creator.

I have friends that are Muslim, Christian and Atheist and I enjoy their friendship and respect all of them. However, who has it figured out correctly? Without getting to deep into the science or the theology behind each belief, there is one thing we should all be able to recognize and agree to. There is good and also evil in this world and I find no evidence that evolution created it. If we say the evil spirits caused the evil, then we must agree that there is something super natural out there. If we say we evolved, then aren’t we saying that man does evil on his own, and we support the natural evolution of evil as well as good. If life on earth was created and did not evolve, then it would take some supper natural someone to have started it and over 52% of the people living today believe it was God who did this.

The question is, which God created life.

  1. The God of Christianity, the God who send his Son Jesus to earth to teach love your God and love your neighbor as yourself (see the actual words of New Testament of the Bible and not someone’s interpretation).
  2. The God of Islam, the God who teaches that if anyone outside of the Islamic faith does not accept Me, those people are irrelevant and not worthy of their life (my wording – see Kuran for actual words and not someone’s interpretation).
  3. The Christian God and the Islamic God Allah appear to be in contradiction of each other.

This is a tough question to ponder. The three points made here are in the written documents of each belief if you dig for answers. They are core positions of each faith. We should all desire a solid foundation to our faith because it does take faith to believe in any of the the three positions.

So if it took a God to create life, which God do we want to follow? Or should we close our minds and our hearts and accept the impossible odds that everything has just happened by chance and evolved from nothing. Continue reading →

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Reflecting on Life


When I look back on my childhood, taking the time to evaluate my life, or maybe I should say the areas that I wrapped my arms around and embraced and those that I didn’t, it brings great joy and in some cases a level of sadness. Turning the clock back to my childhood, growing up on the farm during the 50’s and 60’s with little spare cash, just enough to get by with and sometimes not even that much, I had a good life that taught me more than I ever gave it credit for.

Graduating High School in 1968 while the Viet Nam war was in full swing, seeing many of my friends serving there and returning home not the same person, some in a box, some missing limbs, but mostly changed personalities due to the effects of the war, was a difficult time.

Getting married at age nineteen, building our first house at age twenty, becoming a father at age twenty-one, were huge steps in life for me.

The foundation learned as a youth growing up was never lost, only forgotten for many years. Saddened by so much I had witnessed as a youth and my mid-teenage years in the religious arena, set my life path in motion. Determination set in, a drive to enjoy life, to become financially sound, to take a stand against all that didn’t fit into my version of faith, all began while still in high school.

Working my way up the ranks of my first job, I worked hard. I took on two jobs in those early years trying to earn what I felt was required to be a good provider. Then becoming licensed in the electrical trade and eventually starting our own company my life was very busy. Between work, family and fun, I had my hands full. Then my eyes were opened to the rest of the world when I took a new job in 1986. Being able to travel to many parts of the world, I began to see and feel the effects that war really has. To be close to war, hearing how others dealt with war both old and new, grasping the many religious faiths and beliefs including those that have no belief in God, it kicked in motion my past and the emotions caused me to re-evaluate my understandings of life.

So what does this mean in the grander scheme of things? It shows that from childhood on, our lives and personalities are set in a direction and become altered as we continue to age, grasping new information, learning about others we cross paths with. The real question is; do we allow ourselves the freedom to open our mind and explore what we see and hear? Or do we remain set in our ways determined not to allow change? Do we even recognize that we are closed to anything that may disrupt our desires and beliefs in life?

For me, I spent the time to re-evaluate my past, examine what I had learned and experienced, and to wrap my arms around what I believe this life is all about. I worked hard to eliminate the mental blocks that so often accompanies our attempt to truly understand, disabling any rational outcome. What I found was that I could make a decision for myself, placing my faith in what I had come to understand. While it was influenced by many, it was in the end, my choice, my decision, my beliefs.

So there’s this lingering question

When was the time you slowed down long enough, shoved the distraction aside, threw out the external influences of those that educate with an agenda whether religious or non-religious or educational and dug deep enough that you allowed yourself the freedom to choose where you have placed your faith?

One of the biggest things I learned along this adventure is that it takes faith to believe in life, it takes faith to believe what it is all about. It takes faith to believe in God or to not believe in God. It takes faith to believe in the direction we choose for our lives.

Where is your faith placed?  

 

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No God? – God? – Allah? – What God?


I’m not a Theologian, Pastor, Rabi, Priest, an Iman or any form of religious leader including any form of leader in this world that believes there is no God. I’m just a regular person that does not let skin color, race or anything else enter into my ability to ask questions and think for myself.

The asking of challenging question can be a difficult task especially when we are asking ourselves. Many time we do not wish to hear anything outside of what we believe to be true. To truly understand we must open our minds if we truly desire the truth.

Please read on, give this some thought and you draw your own conclusions.

Is the God of the Muslim belief, is the God of Islam and the God of Christianity the God of the Bible the same God? There are many debates on this, but for just this instant let’s say they are.

If God is who He said He is and God sent or enlightened his Prophets to inform each of us how to live our life, then He cared for everything he created which includes all men, women, and children around the world. If Jesus said to love your God with all your heart and love your neighbor as yourself and Muhammad said to kill everyone that does not believe as I do, then who do you want to believe?

Remember it takes “Faith” to believe either way.

So who do you want to believe? Where do you place your faith?

Do I believe the One that teaches love everything I have created including all men, women, and children – or – do I believe the one that teaches kill men, women, and children that don’t believe as I do?

This is a hard question for some to answer because of the abuse so many have encountered in their lives. However, does it makes any difference who you are, what country you live in, what color your skin is, or how you were raised. All abuse has been handed down by the “hand of man.” If you are a Christian or a Muslim, if you hand down cruelty and hatred, you are not doing what God wants you to do.

Only “WE” can make a difference. It starts as an individual then to our family then to our friends then to the rest of the world.

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Breaking it Down – “Evolution” or “God”


Did we Evolve? Who is God? Is He Real?

Great questions and worthy of investigation by everyone even if one doesn’t believe there is a God of any type. It’s always positive to explore open-mindedly something just for the sake of knowing if you’re right in the beliefs and understandings you currently hold.

Breaking it Down

  • If the world and everything we see, feel, hear, and smell happened by way of evolution then it all start “somehow” at “some time” in the past.
  • Something cannot be made out of absolutely nothing? I expect that human knowledge will tell us that we need something to start with.
  • If the evolutionary theory is actually how everything started, it needed something to begin with just to get started regardless of what took place that began the formation of everything.
  • Where did this come from? Just who or what could have provided these things?
  • To find out who or what could have done these things we should, I would think, go back as far in time as humanly possible.

Food for Thought

When the sciences are exploring and working to find the origin of time, when and how things originated, or how old things are, they go back as far as they can to identify the age and origination. With no documentation available that is dated millions or billions of years ago, it leads one to speculate. Experiments and testing must be done based on the assumption of what we believe things were like when it all began. However, something must have been in existence if we believe something cannot come from nothing. If we have any documentation, we should utilize it and prove or disprove its truth and not just say yes it is or no it isn’t.

Breaking it Down a Little More

  • The oldest book that ever was written was/is the Bible.
  • Who wrote it? It was written by man as all books are written by some man or woman. So human desires and human error can come into play.
  • If the oldest book that was ever written tells us that God created everything from the very beginning of time, then how do we know that the Bible is an authentic book inspired by God?

Food for Thought

If you were to read a novel or some story that has several books that tell the complete story, like a trilogy, would you read only the first book or first couple books and make up your own ending? Most of all, would you know the real outcome of the story? No, it would be your version of the ending.

Breaking it Down Again

  • If one should be of some faith that believes in God (i.e., Muslim, Jewish, Christian, etc.), or even an atheist who believe in no god, then wouldn’t it be a good idea to read the entire book to see if there are truths written in it? Shouldn’t we want to check out every reference noted in the book exploring to see if it has the possibility to be factual? If we place our lives outcome in what we choose to put our faith in, and it does take faith to believe in God, some god or no god, then we should desire to know the truth and there is only one way to find it.

A little more Food for Thought

If one was to write a scientific paper on any topic in the science world, would you read only part of a book and complete your paper? Would you read the entire book and finish your paper? Would you research other writings on the subject and complete your paper? If your desire is to convince people from all walks of life to take what you have written as factual, then you need to address all possibilities showing that you have done research on each area.

So what is this all about?

If God is real and he started everything regardless of how it started, then there is only one God, the God that started it all regardless of what you call Him. If the Bible is truthful and it states, “In the Beginning God Created the Heavens and the Earth,” then science should always take this into consideration. If the Bible is real, regardless of the fact that it was written by the hands of humans, then one should utilize and research the complete story. We should look at everything that was written in the Bible hundreds and even thousands of years before it actually took place. One should not stop at the end of some chapter and write conclusions based on one’s own desired outcome.

My Conclusions

I believe that science works very hard and has so much to offer. I also believe that God is real and that there is only one God. I believe that if science would utilize what is written in the Bible as a possible foundation for how everything started, using all available technologies and findings, they will find that it offers an explanation that can be proven scientifically. I believe that man, religious man, and scientific man, has made many rules and regulations just to satisfy their desired outcome. The only reason I can comprehend is that they crave power and control over people. Maybe it’s just to add some level of comfort to themselves based on something that someone else has told them they were wrong about or something someone has told them they had to do, someone’s rules and regulation.

While I will not tell you what you should believe, I can tell you what I believe.

I believe that God is real, that there is only one God, that He created everything and that He made a very excellent place for each of us to live. I believe He created man and woman with a mind and gave us the ability to make decisions for ourselves. I believe that He never planned or wanted to be a dictator of how or where we place our faith. I believe that what is written in the Bible is truthful, factual, and it can be proven when one seriously looks at all of it. Everything that was predicted within the Bible, excluding the single last prediction, has been proven to have taken place including the story of Jesus. I believe that man has taken it upon himself to mess up this world for his own reasoning when it was so very simple right from the beginning. We were told to love God and to love our neighbor as ourself. If we would just do this, we would not kill because we love our neighbor as ourself, regardless of where our neighbor lives. We would have no need for additional man-made rules because the ones we have been given are enough to make the world live in harmony with each other.

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Breaking it Down: if we could just…


If we would allow ourselves to step outside our current life, dropping for a moment our inner thoughts, forgetting what we have been taught in our schools, our homes and step back from any religious beliefs we have, opening our mind to all we see, what would we like the world to be like?

With everything that is happening around this world, many times in the name of God, or some god, or Allah, or in the name of progressive evolution, one should wonder why. Why does man take something so simple to grasp, add his desires and then drive his agenda?  What is it that makes man’s desire to do evil, to hate, to murder?

If you are a Christian, you say you believe in God. Why do those that kill in the name of this belief, kill at all, when to be a Christian you are to love one another.

If you a Muslim, you say you believe in God. Why do those that kill in the name of this belief, kill at all, when to be a Muslim you are to love one another.

If you acknowledge that God exist, then you should show love to everyone.

What makes man behave as he does? What makes humans make up their own rules just to satisfy man’s own desires?

One of the most basic needs in life is to be loved by a mother or father, a brother or sister, a son or a daughter, a friend or a foe. Yes, even our enemy. If we loved our enemies and we were loved by our enemies, we would no longer have enemies. It makes no difference where in this world you live or what your beliefs are. Love enables each of us to grasp our desired happiness and defeat evil, to stop doing evil, to stop being evil.

Coming back full circle, we step back into our world realizing that love is drastically missing in so many places. We recognize that some force is driving man away from this simple principle of life. Is it intellect and a belief man has evolved and that some levels of man are greater than others? Is it the man-made rules in some religious belief that pits one against another? Is it a form of arrogance, conceit, pride or superiority that separates one from another? Is it aggressiveness versus laziness? Is it an evil force driving the wedge of hate and deceit into our lives?

This is a question we should ask ourselves?

To be loved one must show love remembering that real love is unconditional and real love expects nothing in return. If your religious belief, which includes all religions, (i.e. Christian, Muslim/Islam, Atheist, Buddhism, etc.) includes evil, hate, murder, then maybe you should rethink your religious belief and take a stand for “Love your neighbor” and bring this world back to what it was designed to be from the beginning.

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Science and the Moon – Truth or Theory


When looking into science we find so many fascinating discoveries. So much of what we see and live in today, evolves around the world of science, engineering, and discovery. It has the ability to rule our world if we should elect to allow it. Is it possible what we think we understand is not really the total truth?

In researching for information about the moon and it’s effects on the earth, I found several things that should make us set back and think just a little. I’m not trying to show extremely accurate scientific facts and figures. But when you look at the theories about evolution and take into account the terminology of billions of years, we open up the theories to the question of the real probabilities of them being true.

One set of information tells us that in about a billion years the moon will have no effect on the earth and it’s tide. This is because the earths rotation will become slower than the moon and the effects of the sun and earth will reverse the moon and it will begin to move back towards the earth and should arrive in about 2 billion years. When it arrives it will break up and form rings around the earth similar to the rings of Saturn.

One set of information tell us the moon is moving away from earth at a rate of 1.5 inches per year.

One set of information tell us that the moon was formed when it split from the earth while other information might tell us that the moon was formed when maybe two smaller moons collided forming what we know today as the moon of the earth.

  • So where is this place on earth that the moon broke out of?

I’m sure some would say that the earth has had a billion years to cover it’s tracks, so let’s leave that one alone.

  • How did it fly out of the earths gravity as either one big chunk or even smaller pieces and into space and “not” take on the looks of Saturn’s rings around the earth?

For the moon to have started to orbit the earth, it would have need for the earth to have been in existence in some form. Otherwise, the moon would have been something just wandering in space.

  • So does that mean it is slightly younger than the raw form of the earth?

If the moon is moving away from the earth at a predetermined rate of 1.5 inch’s per year, and it will take about 1 billion more years before it reverses direction, and using the 2 billion years needed to return to the earth before it will break up creating rings around the earth, than maybe we could estimate that the earth was 1 billion years old with respect to when the moon was formed and will be 3 billion years old when the moon returns to it’s origin. However, many in science will estimate the age of the earth at approximately 3.5+ billion years old.

At the rate of 1.5 inches per/year that the moon moves away – which is what science tell us – and given it’s current location in space with a distance of approximately 220,593 from edge of earth to the edge of the moon (not center to center), the moon would have need to have started at a point that is 23,674 miles closer to earth than it is today. This would also mean that it will move another 23,674 miles farther away before it start to return towards earth. This would mean that the moon, if formed by splitting off earth, was sent quickly out to a distance of 196,919 miles from earth when it was formed. If it has a constant rate of 1.5 inches per/year of movement and it will take 2 billion years to again return back to the earth before breaking up, then it will need to travel much faster than 1.5 inches per/year because in 2 billion years it will only be back to approximately 196,919 miles from earth.

  • Why would the effects of gravity and magnetic pull that are currently sending the moon away from earth have the opposite effect causing it to return?
  • Why would the moon not just float away into space and the earth loose the effects of the moon?
  • If the earth is only one billion years old with respect to the moon and the moon was needed before life could be formed, then wouldn’t the beginning of life on earth be just a little younger than 1 billion years?

You may ask why this is important. It is because so often we take what we read as completely true and base our life on it. Now, I am sure you may not sit around and contemplate questions about the affects of the moon on your life.

  • But what about the affects of science on your life that you are led to believe is true and not just a theory?
  • What if all this was created and it didn’t just evolve?

Theories are great but should remain a theory unless it is proven factual. No one should position a theory as true just to drive one’s own beliefs and agendas.

Why is it that so many want to believe that everything just evolved? What is wrong with the idea that everything was created? Why do so many avoid this?

 (Information used in this research was derived from scientific articles available over the internet.)
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Walking the “Middle of the Road”


The CENTER  –  The LEFT  –  The RIGHT

Where should we walk, talk and live?

What happens when one try’s to walk down the middle of the road? Have you ever tried to stay neutral? Do you believe in live and let live, don’t rock the boat, or to each their own? Everyone generally has an opinion, a belief or an understanding on many of todays issues of life, but do you feel that it is sometimes more healthy to keep it to yourself?

What happens when we are forced into a corner and are required to take one side or the other, when we are confronted by something bigger than we are and the center lane of life is taken away? Your desires, understanding or position may be on the right or the left or maybe you consider yourself in the center when it comes to politics, but what about your health or someone else’s health or what about religion? What will we do when we are forced to make a choice?

For some people living today, this question is faced everyday. We could be forced to make a decision based on “how will this impact my life” or “how will this impact my family” or “how will this impact my job”. It could truly be a matter of life or death. Will we go with the majority, side with the ones forcing the decision, enabling a temporary feeling of safeness? Will we tell the questioner what they want to hear even if we don’t believe it? Have you ever thought about what you would do if you were confronted by someone that would do you harm if you didn’t side with them? Would you stand by your beliefs or cave to the pressure?

When we look around the world we see countries and regions that beat, mam, and kill, the men, women and children who stand up for their beliefs. In many countries including mine, this generally does not exist today, but what would we do if it did?

Question: What would you do?

Being prepared, knowing what to do or say is one of life’s challenges. To prepare, one first must acknowledge the need and then step out and ask themselves those critical questions.  

Observe
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Observe


The power of observation is so often taken over by the power of ones speech. Silence can be golden!

Orlando Espinosa

The best lessons are learned when you watch and observe other people’s behavior!observe orlando espinosa monsters inc

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Where Does Faith in Science Stop and Faith in God Begin – It’s a Choice


True story: A man visits his Doctor and after some test he is diagnosed with cancer. Surgery is scheduled and during the surgery the Doctor find that he is full of cancer, much worse that they had anticipated and they can do nothing. They sew him back up and after a short stop in the recovery room, the Doctors give him the results of what they found explaining to him and his family that he has only a short time to live. They tell him to go home and call them if he feels things are progressing or if he has any additional issues but that he should return in one month and they should be able to tell how fast the cancer is spreading and how much time he has left.

The man goes home and together with his family they begin to pray for his health to return.

The man returns one month later and when the Doctors checked him out they look at each other not believing what they are finding. They run more test and finally return to tell the man they cannot find any cancer. They have no explanation. One of the Doctors added; I have seen this happen once before. I cannot explain it. First it is there and then it is gone. The other Doctor added; I know what we saw when we had you opened up. There is just no medical or scientific answer to how this could have happened.

” I know such a man that this happened too. No explanation outside of his prayer asking to be healed. No pills, no drugs, just prayer to God.”

The question is: If we as a human population rely so heavily on Science and stand so firm on the idea that for ever action there is a reaction, that all things can be proven by Science and only after proven will we believe something is true, then what did this just prove? Science tells us he should have died of cancer, but he didn’t. So can Science be wrong at times?

Conclusion: if Science tells us one thing but something else happens then it is a Miracle and yes God exist! However, if one chooses to not believe in the existence of God, that the miracle just happened for what ever reason, then we are still choosing to place our faith in something without a proven explanation. So it does take faith one way or the other.

The follow-up question: how deep have you looked into the possibilities that some of what you have been told may not have real scientific proof behind it? In the doctors case they had the proof that he had cancer and that he would only live a short time. Case after case people died with this type of cancer. But how did it go away? If you dig deep enough you will find other cases where science is defied as something else is the final result.