A common expression with young people is “YOLO”.  It stands for  “You Only Live Once” and is usually used when encouraging others to live life to the max.  Not living your life to its full potential is a shame, but the sentiment of this expression is slightly misguided.

According to the Bible there is more to life than just the present.  This life is important and the Bible tells us about changes we need to make to our lives in preparation for a perfect everlasting life, which will make any adventures we have in this life insignificant.

This new life will start with the return of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.  He will set up a Kingdom on earth the like of which has never been seen before.  It will be a Kingdom of peace and of love and will last forever.  We are told that when he returns (which could be any day soon) he will grant those of his followers, who he sees as being faithful, a place in that Kingdom.  Those faithful who have died will be raised and live forever in this Kingdom.  So you can see the idea that “you only live once” is a bit flawed!

However, there are conditions, which is why it is so important that you make the most of this life.  We are told that we need to face up to our shortcomings and change our lives (usually referred to as repentance) to follow Jesus’ instructions. We are also told that we need to be baptised.  Jesus instructed his disciples:

“Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.  He who believes and is baptised will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned. 

 Mark 16:15-16

 If you don’t do this then YOLO is a reality.  You really will only live once, and once you die, that’s it.  So why not make this life worth living.  Read the Bible.  Because life’s too short.

Every New Year, millions of people resolve to change their lives and make a new start.  These usually take the form of New Years resolutions such as losing weight, taking more exercise, quitting smoking or

learning a new skill.  Unfortunately, by February many of us have forgotten these resolutions and have returned to same old rut which we were previously in, despondent at our lack of willpower.  So why not make a change which will be life changing….forever!

The Bible is full of people who did just that. They changed their old life and made a fresh start.  Let’s looks at just 3 examples:

Abraham

Abraham was a wealthy businessman who lived in Ur of the Chaldeees (which is where modern day Iraq is) around 2080BC.  God told him to move him and his family to a new part of the world.

Now the Lord had said to Abram:

“Get out of your country,
From your family
And from your father’s house,
To a land that I will show you.
I will make you a great nation;
I will bless you
And make your name great;
And you shall be a blessing.
I will bless those who bless you,
And I will curse him who curses you;
And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

 

Genesis 12:1-3

Abraham did just this.  Well with a promise like that you would wouldn’t you!  The thing is the promised which God made wouldn’t be fulfilled in Abrahams life.  The nation that descended from Abraham was the Hebrews (or more commonly referred to as the Jews) but the promise extends far beyond just them.  It has partially been fulfilled but will only be fully realised in the future, as we will see shortly.

Moses

In the book of Exodus we come across Moses.  Moses was born a Hebrew but grew up in the palace of the Egyptian Pharaoh in about 1500BC.  He never forgot his roots and one day made a decision that would change his life forever.  He killed an Egyptian who was abusing a fellow Hebrew (who were by this stage slaves to the Egyptians) and fled the country.

When he was in exile in the neighbouring country of Midian, God spoke to him, just like he spoke to Abraham around 600 years earlier. He said:

I have surely seen the oppression of My people who are in Egypt, and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows. So I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up from that land to a good and large land, to a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites and the Hittites and the Amorites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites.  Now therefore, behold, the cry of the children of Israel has come to Me, and I have also seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppress them. Come now, therefore, and I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring My people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.”

Exodus Ch3: 7-10

 So God was continuing the fulfilment of the promise made to Abraham, but wanted Moses personally involved.  If you read the rest of the chapter yourself, you will see that Moses was initially reluctant, but eventually came around and was indeed a great leader.

Paul

By the time we get to the New Testament (about 50 AD), Jesus, the son of God, has been crucified and raised from the dead.  His disciples (the Christians) were being persecuted by the Jewish and Roman (Pagan) authorities.  They were trying to quash this new belief.  One person who was the most fervent was a man called Saul who was at the execution of one of Jesus’ followers, Stephen:

Now Saul was consenting to his death.  At that time a great persecution arose against the church which was at Jerusalem; and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles. 2 And devout men carried Stephen to his burial, and made great lamentation over him.  As for Saul, he made havoc of the church, entering every house, and dragging off men and women, committing them to prison.

Acts 8:1-3

Even he made a fresh start and an amazing transformation when Jesus himself confronted him as Paul was travelling to Damascus:

Suddenly a light shone around him from heaven. 4 Then he fell to the ground, and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?” And he said, “Who are You, Lord?”

Then the Lord said, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.[a] It is hard for you to kick against the goads.” So he, trembling and astonished, said, “Lord, what do you want me to do?”

Acts 9:3-6

 From this point on, Paul became one of the most devout followers of Jesus and the majority of the New Testament is made up of his letters to believers encouraging them on their new lives.

Now it’s important to say that none of the above men had easy lives after they turned to God, but they all knew that they were working towards something greater.  It’s worth noting also how initially reluctant some of them were, but they eventually came around to understanding God’s purpose.  In fact Paul in his letter to the Hebrews (the Jews who had converted to Christianity) refers to Abraham, Moses and many other Old Testament characters in chapter 11 of the letter, often referred to as the “chapter of faith”.

What applies to these 3 men also applies to us.  The great nation that was promised to Abraham extends beyond the Jews tp the believers in Christ who also share the promise of eternal life in God’s Kingdom when Jesus returns to the earth.

So perhaps this New Year instead of just considering changing superficial aspects of our lives such as they way we look or what we know, we should consider making a real fresh start, make a fresh new life, and really start living!

Recently there has been a raft of TV and radio programmes looking at the Cold War.  This was the tense political position between the East and the West during the 1950’s to 1980’s.  Those who lived through the time will remember the imminent threat of nuclear war.  All of these programmes about this time period talk about the potential for “Armageddon” or the impending “apocalypse”.  In 1982 there was even a satirical comedy about the position called “Whoops, Apocalypse”.  But what are Armageddon and the apocalypse, and are these words being used correctly in these contexts?

Both words relate to the Bible and the book of Revelation. An apocalypse (Ancient Greek: ἀποκάλυψις apocálypsis, from ἀπό and καλύπτω meaning ‘un-covering’), translated literally from Greek, is a disclosure of knowledge, i.e., a lifting of the veil or revelation.  So the whole book of Revelation is an apocalypse.  But with the book referring to the end of the current time and the return of Jesus, people interpret the apocalypse as meaning the end of the world by any means.  Indeed the aforementioned documentaries married the idea of total nuclear annihilation by man due to nuclear weapons as being the apocalypse.  In fact the apocalypse (or revelation) clearly states that the earth will not be destroyed.  It talks about a new heaven and a new earth after Jesus returns; but it will be God who facilitates this, not man.

And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; 

Rev 21:1

The book does appear to make reference to a battle between the believers and non-believers at a place called Armageddon; but this will be one thousand years after Jesus has returned.

And he gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon

Rev 16:16

This verse (the only time the word is used in the whole of the Bible) is in the middle of a section of symbolic language and so it’s unclear whether this is a literal or figurative battle.  Again though, it has come to be associated with any huge battle, which will end with the destruction of mankind.

It’s a sad fact that a lot of the time people misuse or misinterpret words or ideas associated with the Bible.  Indeed the book of Revelation has been a stable touch-stone for many a horror writer; but in fact it couldn’t be further away from the truth.  The book is difficult to understand; but at the end it talks about the earth being returned to its original perfection.  The Bible as a whole explains how you can be in that perfect world.  The choice is yours.  To find out how, visit our what we believe  page.