Faith - Thermometer: What is your temperature ?

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Excerpt:

One of the evidences of not drinking deeply from Jesus is the instability of constantly moving from one thing to the next, seeking to fill  THE VOID.

You may be going through sexual partners, you may be going through friends, through jobs, you may be going through churches, just one after the other, you may be going through hobbies - internet stuff hobbies, games - you may be going through hairstyles, wardrobes, cars, locations, of where you live -

- because there is no deeply contented identity in Christ -deeply contented, deeply satisfied.

Your soul is a cavern of desire.

I offer myself to you, Jesus says, as water that lives. It becomes a well, it just satisfies day after day, you get up with hungers and longings and soul achings in the morning and come to me and find stability of contented identity.

And then you don´t move around so much, jumping here, jumping there. Crave, crave, crave, but nothing works.

That sounds static, doesn´t it ? Baloney, it isn´t static ! Believe me, it isn´t static.

There is a difference between a confident movement of Faith and craving movement of frustration ...

John Piper

Live your life for Christ - don´t waste it !

God planned more for your life - dare to find out !

Jesus said to him: "Come and follow me! And immediately he got up and followed him."

Mark 2:14

This is not a once-in-a-lifetime-experience. It is a life-style.

Being a follower of Jesus means, staying close to Him. 

Means keep talking to Him as we walk with Him through the day. Keep in touch with His focus, with His ideas, with His priorities.

Wanting His will. 

How does that work ?

What many Christians keep forgetting - we need to have an open ear to what He is saying.

The disciples of Jesus were listening much more than talking to Him. 

There can come an imbalance into our faith when praying, we convict ourselves of our own ways, and don´t care enough to listen. 

Wanting Him follow us. Leading the way and expecting Him to quietly protect and bless whatever we feel guided to.

Be sure you keep in focus what He is saying. What He has said. What He did. How He lived.

You don´t have to wait long to make Him speak to you personally. 

Just take the time, open your Bible, and start listening. Start watching. And start following.

Don´t waste your life. 

Know Him. Love Him. Serve Him.

Day by day.

Jasna Beocanin

How can one believe in God when he allows so much suffering ?

Isn´t this the single biggest challenge to the Christian faith, when God is supposed to be a God of love, and a God of justice?

We live in a world full of war, cruelty, atrocities, hunger, sexual abuse of little children, greed, selfishness and broken hearts wherever you look around !


If God is good, then why does he allow evil ? If God is almighty, why doesn´t he make people behave ? 

So, is he cruel, indifferent, impotent, or just non-existent ?

We know that there can not be true love where there is no free will and a choice. In view of the Creator, this includes the possibility to choose something else than the good God intended for man. And there will be consequences where choices are made.

Should God eliminate our free will in order to prevent evil ? Or should he only eliminate the effects of our bad choices ?

Both would turn out to be a chess game. God doesn´t play chess with us. No, he doesn´t. He is too serious about His free choice to love us, inspite of all our self-determined God-less ways.

But what, then, is this all about ? Suffering and evil is so meaningless !

WHERE IS GOD when there is immense pain ???

Reading the book, "The Case For Faith" by journalist Lee Strobel, I found this passage a key response - not answer ! - when you find suffering, pain and injustice overwhelming:

"I could never myself believe in God if it were not for the cross..."


> Why is he saying that ??? <

"In the real world of pain, how could one worship a God who was immune to it ?

“I have entered many Buddhist temples in different Asian countries and stood respectfully before the statue of Buddha, his legs crossed, arms folded, eyes closed, the ghost of a smile playing round his mouth, a remote look on his face, detached from the agonies of the world.

"But each time after a while I have had to turn away. And in imagination I have turned instead to that lonely, twisted, tortured figure on the cross, nails through hands and feet, back lacerated, limbs wrenched, brow bleeding from thorn-pricks, mouth dry and intolerably thirsty, plunged in God-forsaken darkness. That is the God for me !

"God laid aside his immunity to pain.


“He entered our world of flesh and blood, tears and death. He suffered for us.
“Our sufferings become more manageable in light of His.


"There is still a question mark against human suffering, but over it we boldly stamp another mark, the cross which symbolizes divine suffering.


"The cross of Christ is God´s only self-justification in such a world as ours."


(Citing John R.W. Stott)

I find immense comfort in the hope that suffering, agony, sorrow and even tragic death is not the end of anybody´s story. God will end all war, injustice, tears and sorrow when he comes back to be the righteous King of this world.

All our questions will be answered then. All our suffering will be fully and more than enough compensated for. Every evil will be forgotten forever. 


This world as it is right now is not the end of the story.

For now, God wants us to know: He is willing to do and to give everything to mend this broken world. In fact, He already did. He could not have given any more. And the immeasurable sacrifice of His own heartblood will not be in vain.

God will write the last chapter of history. And it will end even better than when it began.


This is a very realistic hope.

What other answer could you offer ? None. Or do you ?

Jasna Beocanin