LORD, your heart is clean and pure,
your voice is lovely, your my only cure.
I stand here broken in my sin,
You come, you clean, my heart you win.
Their is no love like the one in your eyes,
You cleaned, you polished you left no ties.
And now I stand in your midst,
Knowing that in your kingdom I perfectly fit.
To see my new article on Misogyny in the bible click here.
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There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.
- 1 John 4:18
Hello everybody!
I haven’t posted a good article recently and I apologize I have just been really busy.
However I have good news! Their is a wonderful Ministry that has opened up in my area, called E&AM one in which I have the privelage to serve in.
To see the official website click here. I will be writing articles for this ministry at my new blog, which can be found here.
Of course I will have to uncover my identity , which I don’t think I did a good job of hiding in the first place, but alas my real name is Jiwan Dhaliwal, (Jeevin, like steven with a J) and not Jean Micheals..
I will continue to post on here, but please feel free to check out my new blog and subscribe! Articles will be up on that site shortly.
Please check out the ministry, my new blog and the other resources posted on our site.
Hope you guys had an awesome weekend 
-Jiwan
Resources:
Hey everybody!
I’m going to India for a missions trip and am collecting funds. We will be ministering to many different ages, working in children’s ministery, construction and aiding the local church in the area. If you wish to donate any money you can go to
http://www.canadahelps.org/CharityProfilePage.aspx?CharityID=s41369
and donate there. When you click donate now, please make sure the Fund/designation is set to “Missions- India- 2012″
If you have any more questions feel free to e-mail me at jjdhali@yahoo.ca
Thank you so much! Be Blessed.
When it comes to sin, we almost always overestimate its benefits while underestimating its consequences.
I think we all know this feeling. Your sitting there and all of a sudden your attacked with your own questions. You start to question everything. Why did Jesus allow such and such? Why do people not do this and this? Why doesn’t God just do this and that? You start thinking more and suddenly your not so sure about your relationship with Jesus.
I’ve been there. I was not raised in a Christian home, actually my parents follow a dharmic religion and raised me in the temple. So long story short Jesus came into my life and I knew that I knew that I knew He was the truth way and life . Then after a few years I wasn’t so sure. I had turned my back on my parents religion and probably offended many people in the faith to follow Christ. I was denying my flesh from worldly lusts and was training my mind to think godly. What if all my efforts to walk in line with Jesus were in vain? What if I was giving up worldly experiences for a religion that wasn’t even true? My head raced and if your going through the same emotions or have gone through this train of thought you know how I felt. During this faith crisis many people question themselves out of faith. If your going through this please slow down. Let me share with you what Christ revealed to me during my very own period of doubt.
No one has ALL the answers
This ones a big one. As Andy Stanley, the lead pastor of Northpoint Community Church said, “I’ve never met a Christian who said they became Christian after they got all their questions answered. Neither have I ever met a Christian who said that now that I’m a Christian all of my questions are answered.” Pastor Stanley says this to confirm his statement “Don’t focus exclusively on your questions. Consider the options.” This statement is filled with truth.
Nobody has all the answers, no one. It doesn’t matter if your a Christian or a Buddhist or an atheist. Nobody has all the answers. Nobody has an epiphany that Jesus Christ is not God overnight. No one wakes up one day and says… hmm you know what Christianity is false. They question themselves out of a relationship with Christ as Andy Stanley has said. So when questioning your faith instead of focusing on your questions think about the options. If not Jesus than who? What or who will you follow if you walk away from God?
Sometimes its easy to assume that you deserve all the answers if your giving your life to Jesus. When I think like this I think about the apostles. Think about it. These men gave up all they had to follow Jesus. Everything. They had many questions throughout their fellowship with Jesus. It’s normal to have questions! Once Jesus was crucified the apostles could have naturally stood there and been like, “God, why are you leaving us on earth alone?” or anything of that sort. Could you imagine all the questions going through the apostles heads before Christ was resurrected? Could you imagine all the questions going through their heads when they were preaching the good news? What about when they were being martyred? They probably had tons! I tell you this because these men spent 3 whole years with Jesus when He walked on earth and even they didn’t have all the answers! God didn’t intend us too. When Jesus came down He could have told us EVERYTHING about heaven or EVERYTHING about why God does what He does. But He didn’t, He spoke the truth about how to live, of God’s will and about salvation. He didn’t focus on every single question the skeptic asked. Why? Questions are never ending, their is always something someone doesn’t understand and these small questions take the focus away from the message of the gospel.
So understand that questions are normal, they are healthy but also realize if you turn from God your turning into something else. Andy Stanley’s message on this really helped me. Here is the link if you’d like to listen to it on your free time. http://www.northpoint.org/messages/shocking-statements-of-jesus
Read your Bible
Yes I know. Typical right? I used to always roll my eyes when someone told me this, but their is truth to the cliché advice! God will speak to you through His word and as a christian I can testify that 75% of the times God has directed me He used His word. Reading the bible will give you biblical answers to your questions.
For example my biggest question was “why does God allow other world religions.?”Now I don’t know why God doesn’t intervene. I will never know until I go up to heaven and ask God himself. But from His word I do know that world religions were always there! Even when God himself led the Israelites out of Egypt they STILL went and made their own God’s to worship. It is something humans have been doing back in biblical times, it’s not a new concept. Even people who directly recieved God’s favor willingly made different Gods because they did not want to change their lives and follow the Lord. The bible gives me a better idea and view of issues. My prayers for you would also be to search the scriptures and do the same : )
Find other resources
One thing we all need to understand is we are not the first ones to ask these questions! Search your resources, see what other christian apologists and scholars have to say.
Some wonderful refrences are:
-CS Lewis -Ravi Zacharais -Billy Graham -Gary Habermas -Micheal Licona -John Lennox -Lee Strobel
Their are tons of people out there defending the Christian faith. If Christianity was based on no reliable foundation it would not be such a hot topic today! Also pray about it. When Jesus said “ask and it will be given, seek and you will find” He didn’t just say it for kicks! He meant it! Pray for guidance with humility and He will give you what you NEED, I promise you. Learn your facts about christianity, know God’s word and don’t let your questions get you down.
Everyone has questions, and it’s normal. Understand however that you will not have answers to every question. That doesn’t make Jesus and His resurrection any different. One book that really healed me was The Case for the Resurrection of Jesus by Micheal Licona and Gary Habermas. It really helped me understand historical arguments for the resurrection. Another great book, which I haven’t read but have heard great reviews about is The case for the Resurrection By Lee strobel.
I really hope this will help you as it helped me If you have any questions on faith or have a topic you would like me to discuss e-mail me at jjdhali@yahoo.ca
Today I was at a store with my mother, who is a lovely woman. To be honest, ( I know this is cliche) but I don’t think their is a better woman out there than her. My mom was not born in Canada and English is her second language. When it was our turn at the registter the woman was unclear on how many cents the purchase was. She mumbled out a few numbers, and we were both unclear on how much it cost. So my mom tried her best to scrape up some coins to give to the lady, in hope she would make the actual cost clear. This confusion of course took some time and the lady behind us and the lady at the register grew impatient. (Mind you it had only been about 2 minutes). Then, they began to get really rude, the lady being vocal and both the woman at the woman at the register and the one behind my mother were giving my mother rude looks. I don’t know whether this is because I love my mom or because I’m human but their behavior really angered me. I kept thinking, “how dare they disrespect my mother like that!” My thoughts went on and on and on.
You know, I can sit here and say 1000 things about those women, say the rudest remarks that come to my mind, point the finger and accuse them for being racist or even fight back, The truth is , I am not any better. I have behaved poorly many times in my life, it just hurts more when you are at the receiving end of the abuse. I prayed for God to take my thoughts and give me peace. As I walked out of there I thought to myself, “This is such a small offence and I had such trouble forgiving them. How does God forgive all of my big mistakes?”
See the truth is we are all guilty of bad behavior. Every single one of us. We want to cry out injustice! We want to cry out for order, we want to fight back! The bible tells us though to forgive. Each and every time. In fact Jesus even goes as far as saying, that whoever does not forgive will not be forgiven.
My initial response is : “but why Jesus?! They hurt me so badly. They are guilty, why should I suffer for their inequities! I am innocent! Why should I forgive them” and I think God will answer somewhere along these lines. “Jean, you being an evil person find it so hard to forgive your neighbor for their abuse. What about I, do I not feel the pain of your abuse? Should I forgive you?”
God pays the greatest tribute when He comes down for us. When He pours His love unto us and forgives our sins, despite their size. It hurts to be the target of someone’s ridicule, but is that not what God forgives us for? Rebelling against Him? The truth is I am not a good person but I have a good God. A God who forgives and because He has forgiven me I also must forgive. This woman’s actions may have hurt me and I admit it is difficult to get over. But I will meet people who will do worse things in my life. People whose actions will be inexcusable and I will have to pray for the strength to forgive the inexcusable. Why? As CS Lewis puts it, ” because God has forgiven the inexcusable in you.”
Jesus forgives, it’s time I learn to do it too.
Do you know what’s the North American Church’s biggest problem? The fact that they run their church on North American mentality. Disclaimer: This may not be true for all churches; it is just a generalization for the growing church mentality.
You see, we’ve done something with our Savior, we’ve turned Him into a vending machine. Throw in a quarter (in this case a Sunday morning) and all your dreams will come true. We’ve turned Jesus into a “good guy” rather than the King of kings and we’ve tried to replace Christ’s love with flashy lights. Now these changes were probably made by people with good intentions. The problem is though, in their attempts to bring people into the church they have put Jesus in a box with foggy windows. They forgot the Holy Spirit brings people in and started doing things with their flesh and not by the spirit. What do I mean by that? Let me explain.
See it is very possible to have good intentions behind something but do it the wrong way. If you carry it out the wrong way, your intention is irrelevant and your whole mission falls into pieces. Let me give you an example. This story can be found in Matthew chapter 16 starting on verse 21.
In this story Jesus announces and explains his death, but Peter reacts from his idea of love and tells Jesus he would never allow that to happen.What an expression of love. Right? When Peter is defending Jesus’s life, it must show Jesus how much Peter loves Him! Do you know what Jesus said to Peter? Not, wow Peter you are an amazing disciple. Not, wow Peter I am impressed by your love. Jesus said: get behind me Satan. Ouch.
How can this be? You see Peter got so overwhelmed by his love for Jesus that he started to think through the flesh and not the spirit. He got drowned in his INTENTION. His intention was to show Jesus how much he loved him. He started concentrating on how HE will make his love useful to God, rather than how God wants him to use his love. See the difference? That’s what has happened in our church. Now nobody is exempt from this. Even I struggle with this. When it comes to witnessing to my parents (read When you have truth without love- it can be found in the January archives) it’s easy to want to establish something for God in your own power. But God doesn’t work like that. When Jesus came he did not change people from the top down. He worked in the heart, from bottom to top.
And WHENEVER the church has tried to work from top to bottom it has ALWAYS been disastrous. Think about the “Christian” hate squads, that go around hurting homosexuals or the “Christians” who killed abortionists in the name of Christ. All this happens BECAUSE people take one thing God stands for and decide they will make it come to pass in their own strength. They have decided THEY will do great things, rather than be part of the great things GOD is doing. That is precisely the North American problem.
We are so blessed in North America that we extract God from the church, because we believe WE can make His will come to pass without Him. This may not be our conscious thought but it comes out in our attitudes and church activities. So today, I challenge us Christians to stop and ask God, how can I be part of what you are doing? How can I work in the spirit? If you have a desire on your heart ask God, “how do YOU want me to make this come to pass?”
It’s time for North America to stop working through the flesh and start working in the spirit.
Leave your comments below or send an e-mail at jjdhali@yahoo.ca
Hope you had a great weekend
-Jean
A few months ago I was really struggling with objections raised against the Christian faith. The hardest ones I faced were all attacking God’s moral character. Michael Ramsden, one of my favorite Christian apologists, says, “When a Christian says they have faith in God they are really making 2 statements on reality. 1) That God is 2) That you can trust His moral character.” So as you can see, the belief that God is Holy and moral is essential for a Christian to believe in God. So how should a Christian respond when God’s moral character is attacked?
1) Breathe and Relax
It’s really easy to get worked up when someone is attacking something dear to your heart. But you need to understand that sometimes these questions are just raised to get a rise out of the believer. So breathe and remember Jesus’ example. Even in the face of ridicule and mockery, He was silent, not because He was unable to speak, but because His silence in the face of disrespect spoke loads more than if He had responded rudely. So pray and don’t lose your cool.
2. Ask Questions
Often times people just assume their position without really thinking it through. Ask an individual what really bothers them about God’s Character. You will find that a lot of them are just mimicking what they have heard from others, they don’t really have any true objections. Also, when you question the questioner you force them to open up to their own assumptions. If you guys are interested in how to ask good questions go to rzim.org and search questioning the questioner. The website does a great job of showing how Jesus always questioned the questioner and how to appropriately talk to skeptics about Christ. Also another good book is When God Goes to Starbucks: A Guide to Everyday Apologetics by Paul Copan.
3. Look for Answers
Unfortunately we live in a society that has not spent their time studying God’s word. Know what the Bible says and research answers to questions. Most questions have been around for a long, long time and there are good satisfactory answers to them! Remember though, to communicate with your questioner. Don’t just search up a nine hour sermon, and send it to them. Understand where they are coming from, listen to their objections and problems and communicate to them in ways that they may understand. If the person you’re speaking to is not much of an intellectual you don’t want to deliver a lecture, but communicate with them on a level that they are able to understand. Just like Paul! Who was a Greek to the Geeks, a Roman to the Romans and a Gentile to the Gentiles!
Also keep reading good apologetic books. I usually got people attacking the God of the Old Testament. So I went out and bought, Is God a Moral Monster: Understanding the God of the Old Testament By Paul Copan. I would seriously recommend it. It is wonderfully written and really puts things into perspective. Find good and respected teachers and listen to their defense of the Christian Faith. We live in a very hostile world where defending the gospel is becoming very important.
Last but not least remember that apologetics is not the gospel. It can help clear away road blocks but it isn’t Jesus and His message. So as great as giving a defense is do not be consumed by intellectualism and remember, God changes hearts. Keep pointing people to Christ and eventually they may want to check out what all the hype is about. And one day they too will learn the glory of our Lord.
