Friday, August 12, 2011

Suicide Watch.

The age old question: Can you go to Heaven if you commit suicide?

How will we know? It's not like we can pick up the phone and ask them. Although I cannot conceive that our merciful God will not have any circumstantial clause where we can be forgiven and still go to heaven, I understand that it is a great sin and one the Bible warns us against. I also know that a lot of people have been saved by the bell so to speak, like the murderer who hung on the cross next to Jesus. When he realised Jesus is innocents and took accountability for his own sins with true repentance, God told him that they will be together in paradise that same day. 

Why would you want to take your life? It is so unnatural, that even people who commit premeditated suicide, almost always end up with scratch marks on their necks, hands, or car handles, as evidence that they wanted to quit at the last minute, but wasn't physically capable of doing so successfully.

Sunday, August 7, 2011

Striking up a conversation with God - Part 3

Conversing with God - Part 3 - by P.K.Odendaal - 23 June 2011.

The question I wish to ask is - How can we fulfill our obligation towards God to strike up a conversation with Him ?

My view is that we need all the skills we can muster to communicate all these things to God. He wants to know what our problems and aspirations are, how we feel, what we think of Him, what we like, how we adore His creation, how we adore our fellow men, what He can do for us. what do we like and what don't we like and a myriad other things. We need to communicate with Him on all levels.

Chris Barnard wrote a very basic prayer (Prayer for the Earth) by someone he knew, and I repeat and translate it here as best I can :