Results Day

As the beautiful summer weather ceases, it is like a picture of the academic year finally ceasing.


Mid to late August is the time every year where students find out the product of a year's work, the exam results! Whether you are GCSE, A Level or doing a professional qualification the day usually means a lot of nervousness and excitement and then happiness or sadness depending on how you did.


Today I found out my fate and I am pleased to report that I did pretty much as I had expected, which was quite well. I passed three of the four exams at this level, with the one failure being one I saw coming due to the exam paper asking questions we hadn't quite studied in class! I will get to re-sit this exam in December with my next two exams and I hope for another three passes!!


It got me thinking however, one day we face the ultimate result. The result of a lifetime of living our lives. When I got the text with my results on I went from the unknown to the known in a matter of a second. Likewise, when our lives finally end we will go from the unknown to the known in a short amount of time.


Hebrews 4:13 states that we all have a meeting scheduled with God upon our deaths, where our lives will be judged.


Just as it's pass or fail or getting the grade you want or not, it's Eternity with God or Eternity without God. This is better known as Heaven or Hell. Of course, Heaven & Hell have been mis-represented to much on this world through TV, books and other media that it is not hard to think it is just a fairy story.


The Bible is clear that Heaven and Hell are a reality. Jesus refers to Hell on three occasions in Mark 9. In Luke 23:43, whilst He is dying, He famously tells the robber on the cross next to Him that he will be with Him in Paradise that night.


We have all sinned, and have fallen short of the glory of God states Romans 3:23. This is terrible news because it means we have failed to meet the requirements to enter Heaven.


But this is the good news - Romans 10:9...."That if you confess with your mouth, Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved."


YOU WILL BE SAVED. That is a promise from God and the Bible shows that, time and time again, God doesn't fail to keep His Promises. Everything God has said will pass, has passed. Jesus came to die on the cross for our sins, that was the main thing He came for, for us. Martin Luther called it, 'The Great Exchange' because Jesus took the punishment for all of our sin in exchange that we might have His perfect life and be able to pass that meeting with God.


The evidence for Jesus rising from the dead is extremely convincing. Atheists have tried to disprove it and failed, some actually converting to Christianity because of the strength of the evidence, which I will post more about this week.


So when it's time for your result, do you know that it is going to be? Do you have confidence? Or will you wait nervously like so many others and just see what happens. Some people can fluke exams, you cannot fluke past God who knows everything.


He Loves you so much, call on Him tonight and make your peace with the one who made you. Those who seek Him with their heart, will find Him. (Jer 29:13)


God Bless you, and I hope your exam results went great!

News of the World

If you haven't been following the News recently you would not be aware of the phone hacking scandal currently engulfing NewsCorp & Rupert Murdoch. 

The Newspaper business is a high pressure business where controversy certainly equals cash and News of the World and other reporters have been shown to have gone too far in their attempts to find their news, hacking celebrities or civilians involved in big new stories (such as Milly Dowler and victims of the 7/7 bombings families) phones.

I think this is part of a bigger problem with our news industry, the problem being the strong tendencies towards BAD NEWS. Just look at the BBC News homepage and count up the bad news stories against the good. I would imagine a strong majority of the news stories are bad news for most people or some people.

Sadly, this world is full of bad news. The human race has been corrupted by its sinful actions. Too many selfish and greedy decisions are being made leading to pain for many people.

In reality we are all imperfect and none of us are deserving of anything, let alone Heaven! This is the worst news of all.

But this where the Greatest News of all comes in! The News may not report this, it may not sell papers but it is the very thing that changed my life for good forever and millions more and is still changing lives today.

This is it, Christ took the rap for our sin and we don't have to if we just ask God for forgiveness and repent of our sin. We don't have to meet some great list of tasks, we don't have to memorise the whole Bible and we definitely don't have to be perfect. We just have to be forgiven :)

John 3:16 - 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.

Also, God doesn't need to hack our phones to find out anything about us! He knows our hearts, He formed us in the womb...He even knows how many hairs are on our heads :)

Psalm 7:9
O righteous God, who searches minds and hearts, bring to an end the violence of the wicked and make the righteous secure.

Psalm 139:13-14

For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb.
I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.

Luke 12:7
Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Don't be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.

Jesus : The Way

I have struggled for time & ideas for the blog but this week I'm going to post on one of my favourite sayings of Jesus' - John 14:6

To give a bit of context, here is John 14:1-6...

 "¹ Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me.

    ² In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you.

    ³ And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.

    ⁴ You know the way to the place where I am going.

 ⁵ Thomas said to him, Lord, we don't know where you are going, so how can we know the way?

    ⁶ Jesus answered, I am the way and the truth and the life. No-one comes to the Father except through me."

He is the Way and the Truth and the Life. Jesus appears to distinct the three as separate things so I will blog on each one separately so it is natural to start with the first of the three in the verse, Jesus being the Way.

In John 2 & Luke 2 Jesus speaks of His Father house, but in those passages He is talking about the Temple in Jerusalem, the main place of worship for Jews at that time. Here Jesus is referring to Heaven as He refers to the house as a place 'with many rooms'. The Disciples had already been to the Temple so would have known about the room structure meaning that Jesus couldn't have been talking about that. Why would Jesus go to the Jewish Temple to prepare rooms for them? In Pre-New Testament Israel, the Temple was the place where the Priests could go to meet with God and be in His Presence on behalf of the people. When Jesus died the veil separating God from the people torn showing that Jesus had opened a way for us to be in relationship with God now. Of course, our relationships with God are all works in progress or works waiting to be progressed and the ultimate conclusion to the development of this relationship will come when we get to be with God for eternity.

So I believe Jesus is saying He is the Way to Heaven here.

But, how is Jesus the way to Heaven?

Revelation 21 describes Heaven as a place with no more death or mourning or crying or pain, sounds perfect to me! God resides in Heaven and He is Perfect. Nothing imperfect can go into Heaven because it will spoil it!

As human beings, we have all sinned and are all therefore imperfect but God doesn't like the idea of us not being there with Him because He Loves us.

Christ came to live a perfect live and trade His life for ours, taking the punishment for our sin on the cross so we could have the reward of a place in Heaven, where God will perfect us so we can fit in there :)

Put your trust in Christ today and punch your ticket for the greatest party of all time - Heaven.