The Answer for World Peace

I’ve done it!

Through years of intense research in a dark underground lab, as well as a library filled with ancient texts, I have studied and found the answer to achieving world peace. The love life I gave up. the meals not eaten. The blood, sweat, and tears. Talking to people who weren’t there for advice. Going insane. It was a hard journey but I made it. World peace.

I’m kidding. It only took me…uuuhhh…15 minutes to find out.

Isaiah 9:6-7 says “For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us; And the government will rest on His shoulders; And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. There will be no end to the increase of His government or of peace, On the throne of David and over his kingdom, To establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness From then on and forevermore. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will accomplish this.”

It was that easy. There are two points in there that I hope you noticed. The person talked about in that passage is Jesus, in case you didn’t know. He will be known as the Prince of Peace.

It also says that, there will be no end to His government or peace.

Those two points right there tell me how we could possibly achieve world peace. Through Jesus, and Jesus alone.

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Dante’s Opinion: How can I stop my mum from killing herself?

It’s baaaaaack!

Dante’s Opinion (the original name and theme of this blog and a past weekly feature) is now on Dante’s Optimism.

Today, we’re looking at a woman who is struggling with her mom.

My mum is killing herself, she’s neglecting & harming herself & I don’t know if I should leave her be & respect her wishes or step in, but if so, how?

She has what is called the worst stage of Emphysema from smoking, and she’s supposed to be on 15hrs oxygen a day. But she’s stopped using it & says it’s because it needs to be serviced, but she also says the house is too messy to let the repair men in ( the house is clean & it doesn’t need to be serviced, it’s just a check).

She had aggressive throat cancer last year, & is recovering from radiation therapy, but is smoking again. When she had the cancer she lost weight, & is now down to 65lbs; when I ask her “what did you eat today” she’ll say something like “I had a coffee earlier”. She doesn’t eat all day, and then has dinner at 1am. Every day she stays up till 5am, even though she’s tired.

She looks after herself as in, she washes & cleans her clothes etc. But with the smoking, the lack of good eating, staying up late & the not using the oxygen, it’s like she’s just decided that she’s going to have things the way she has always had it, even if it kills her.

My sister and I help with shopping, and we go over and have meals or days out with her regularly, but we also have families and businesses to run. Our mum has no interest in looking after herself. Not even on a basic level of cooking breakfast or going to bed on time. She’s not the kind of woman you tell what to do. Have you ever experienced something like this?

Well, you would want to pray, but I mean…you can’t stop there.

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Suicide

Can you do me a favor? Don’t worry about my mental health as you read this.

One of the glaring debates was this: If you kill yourself, do you go to hell?

It’s an interesting question.

So, I did some research. I consulted the Bible because that’s the only book that matters on the subject. It doesn’t clearly say you will go to hell. Still, the Bible isn’t exact on a lot of topics and you have to use interpretation to figure it out.

Anyway, I looked on the web to see both sides of the debate. I’m going to share them both with you.

This side says we’re going to heaven if Christians commit suicide:

Yes, suicide raises many spiritual and psychological questions, but one thing is certain:

God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it (Ephesians 2:8-9).

We obtain heaven only by our belief in Jesus Christ as our Savior. And we go to hell only by our rejection of Jesus Christ as our Savior (Hebrews 6:4-6).

Here, we see that accepting Jesus is the ticket into heaven. It would appear that nothing can cancel this, not even taking our own life.

Here is the side where people think you will go to hell. Please note that this article ultimately says you go to heaven, but dived into the other side of the argument:

Some Christians have objected to this paper and cite 1 Corinthians 3:16-17as evidence that those who commit suicide will be excluded from heaven:

Do you not know that you are a temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If any man destroys the temple of God, God will destroy him, for the temple of God is holy, and that is what you are.

Both sides have a credible argument. The answer to our question lies within the answer to another question: How do you get into heaven…and, how can you cancel that promise?

Before I started my research, I felt like heaven was the destination if I were to kill myself. Looking at these two sides, I still lean on heaven as a result. However, I needed to find something that showed that nothing would force God to say, “No, you can’t come in” besides not believing.

I’ve always thought that a trip to heaven was permanent. Nothing you could do…nothing anybody could do, could kill that gift that God gave. We have to find out if suicide is the one thing that can separate us from God.

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Is There A Reward System In Heaven?

This one is gonna be fun. Ready?

Everybody that accepts Jesus as their Lord and personal Savior is guaranteed a spot in heaven. But, what if…what if depending on how you lived, you had more “rewards” in heaven?

There are a few Bible verses that somewhat indicate this, so I’m not completely making something up. However, before I mention those verses, I’m going to share with you my personal thoughts about this question.

We all know that the way salvation works can be…annoying to many. As Christians, we live for God. Well, we’re supposed to. Anyway, sometimes it can be infuriating when we see non-Christians apparently thriving more than us, children of the most high God.

It can also seem unfair that people can be unsaved all of their lives, then get saved at the last minute, and then get into heaven, when you spent 50 years getting beaten by the same person for being a Christian. Youch!

To me, I look at God as a God of justice. I think He honors those who have served Him. High honors. I think not everybody will hear “Well done, my good and faithful servant”. That’s what I believe.

Think about it. If you accept Jesus in your life, then spend the rest of it not following Him, does it make sense for God to still tell you good job? You didn’t do what you were supposed to do, so this would be undeserved praise. As merciful as God is, I think He’s also a fair God.

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Christians: Have We Created Our Own God?

Oh Lord.

Let me share a fairly funny story. I’m a single guy in his 20s. I think I’m still young enough where I’m not looked at as “he’s gay” or “there must be a serious problem”. You get that a lot about singles in their 30s.

Anyway, as you have probably heard, I run a lighting ministry at my church. My crew mainly consists of teenagers. They are adorable. So young. So innocent (most of the time!). But, really, just a great group of kid-uh I mean…young people…no wait…teens. F it. Great group of teens.

Sometimes though, they go a little too far.

Early 2014, as we were working on our church’s Good Friday play (and y’all know that was a traumatic experience for me), one of my girls did something that I couldn’t believe: She signed me up for Christian Mingle, the dating website.

My teens are…they can be bold sometimes. I have my hands full as this was one of the tamer things they’ve done. But yeah, she signed me up for this service. She managed to do this while I was only feet away from her! Noooo, she didn’t wait until she was home or whatever. Her sister and another girl on the crew begin filling out parts of the profile and stuff.

You know how I eventually found out? I got an email from the site thanking me for signing up. I’m looking on my phone’s screen trying to recall when I even bothered with it. I look at the girls, who had just been asking me what type of woman I want and what my hobbies are and I didn’t think much of it. But that email pretty much put me on notice.

I tell her to delete the darn thing. “I forgot the password”. Oh, yeah right. I’m really in a fit right now, looking at her. Curse her disarming smile though.

I go home, intent on deleting the darn account. So, I go and there’s this long process before I can delete the account. After resetting the password and getting back in, they force you to complete parts of the profile before you can access the thing and delete it. I’m like…what?

Don’t worry, this is the part where I lead into my story for this post. One of the things they ask you is what denomination you are part of. It just so happens the church I am a part of is non-denominational. But, that drop down list exposed me to a LOT more denominations than I thought there were.

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Is Death Really Bad? What Is Life?

You can tell this post is gonna be deep…right?

I’ve always looked forward to death. If you’ve read this blog enough, you know this. I really look forward to it.

I get to go to heaven. I mean…that’s it. Heaven is where the action is, baby.

Countless times, you hear that death is something we must avoid at all costs. I mean, don’t kill yourself, but I don’t think you should look at death as something disastrous. I mean, if you don’t quite believe in the life after death concept, then yeah, death can be scary.

But, for me, death is the start of something. Something great. Something eternal. That’s why I don’t mind death. I don’t care. Sometimes, when I’m at funerals, I can hear myself think “you lucky dog”. He’s finally done. He’s free. He’s celebrating in heaven (well, I would think he is, but nobody knows for sure).

Anyway, I’m here. Now, in the past, when I first realized that heaven was waiting for me, my first instinct was to die. I wanted to die and get to heaven as soon as possible. Let’s wrap this up. Call it a day. What was the point of life?

I’ve gotten over my desire to die, but I will always look forward to it. I’m not a fighter. If I got cancer, I’d probably do whatever the doctor says but, ultimately, in the back of my mind, I’ll always have that “it’s okay to die, though”.

I can admit I have a fear of suffering. I’m not at a mental capacity to fight an illness or physical disability. Fear of aging? Probably. I look at my over 90 year old great grandmother. She is capable of living on her own, so that tells you right there she’s still doing her thing. That’s how I want to be.

To be less than 100% doesn’t appear to be worth it on the surface because heaven becomes an even better looking object. It comes with a new body. A better body. An eternal body. Sitting here in a wheelchair not able to feel my legs isn’t fun compared to that.

So, is death really bad? What is life?

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