No protection for turning back

I have been reading a Christian classic called, The Pilgrim's Progress. It is about a guy named Christian who is on a journey from the city of destruction, to the City of Zion. The story is about the various things and people he meets along his way. I just finished a chapter called "Apollyon". In this chapter Christian meets a character named Apollyon, who represents Satan.

In the previous chapter , Christian had just been given the armour of God. The armour of God consists of:

Belt of TRUTH - God
Breastplate of RIGHTEOUSNESS - The Righteousness of Jesus in you
Sandals of PEACE - Inner peace and readiness
Shield of FAITH - Living by faith
Helmet of SALVATION - Salvation through Christ today and forever
Sword of the spirit - GOD'S WORD - God's Word countering spiritual deception and accusations

John Bunyan, the books author, goes on to write:

Christian began to be afraid, and wondered whether to go back or to stand his ground. But he remembered that he had no armour on his back and thought that by turning his back he might give the fiend the advantage since then Apollyon could easily pierce him with his darts so Christian resolved to go out and stand his ground. "For", he thought "if all I wanted to do was to save my own life, that would still be the best way to stand."

The key point here is that there is no protection for the back in the armour that God has given us as Christians. Our fight has to be one that is always moving forward. If we look back, that is when Satan has the power to defeat us. However, if we press on, even during tough times, and continue forward, we can be sure that we have a tool from God to win the battle.

I thought this was a profound thought from the pen of Bunyan. For anyone interested in reading a deep, but easy to read book, full of Christian truth, I recommend the Pilgrim's Progress. It is a classic.

Matt bonner, my hero

Just want to take a quick opportunity to say that matt bonner is awesome! For those of you unfamiliar with the "red rocket", he is a player on the Toronto raptors. This guy plays tough d, hits his shots (especially 3's) and plays his heart out every game. Not only that, but he plays in the NBA, and doesn't even have a car. He walks to the ACC for games and practices.

Apparently he has a grandparent who is Canadian, so Leo rautins (Canada's national basketball head coach) says he is going to see if there is some loophole that could allow him to play for Canada. That would be sweet.

we have lost enough Canadians to other countries (rusedski in tennis, Lennox Lewis in boxing, Owen hargreaves in soccer), it would be nice to get some love back!

no absolute truth!!

as we are advertising for ravi zacharias coming to the university of waterloo, one particular event stands out...

in order to show how silly it is for people to say, "you have your truth, i have my truth", one of our students stood outside the Student Center, on a freezing cold day wearing only shorts and a billboard over his chest. the billboard said something to the effect of, "there is no absolute truth. you think it is -10 today, i think it is +20".

he was pretty cold afterward, and said some of his extremities were still numb, but in the end he decided that no matter how hard he tried to beleive it was +20 outside, in reality, it didnt change the fact that it was -10.

Noah's ark not by natural causes?!?!?!

Hey guys,

so i was flipping through the channels the other night when i came across this documentary about noah's ark. it was interesting...

their whole point, whoever made it, was to prove that to believe that noah's ark actually occurred is silly. the basis of their argument? based on research, it is impossible that this event could have occured by natural causes. {insert sarcasm here} excellent job sherlock, i never would have guessed that the gathering of animals from all around the world couldn't have happened without any sort of SUPERnatural intervention.

it was actually quite funny though... they actually tried to show how hard it would have been to gather these animals, by having actors portraying noah and his family struggling to get those pesky camels on the ark. you should have seen them pulling on those harnesses! it looked like they were about to pass out from exhaustion. plenty of brow wiping action was going on.

the more and more i go through life, the more and more i realize that people are funny...

Jesus Among Other Gods

Does everyone know that Ravi Zacharias is coming to Mac/Waterloo/Guelph later in January??

Anyways, to prepare for his visit, I began to read one of his books called, "Jesus Among Other Gods". The book sets out to compare Jesus to other leading religious figures (Mohammed, Buddha, and Krishna), and to show how Jesus stands out as special among them.

The first chapter was a bit about his (ravi's) early life, and setting the context for the rest of his book.

The second chapter was really good, and for the first time in a while i felt like i learned something new and cool. It talked about how Jesus has no begining, as well as the fact that Jesus doesnt have a specific home on earth. The other figures all had beginings and hometowns. (Jesus as a human had a birth and hometown, but existed in eternity past with God the Father, and God the Holy Spirit).

Anyways, the cool new fact that i learned was concerning one of the problems that Muslims have with Christianity, which is the fact that Jesus is God's son. Most Muslims i have talked with, both here in Canada, and in Tanzania, say that God could not have a son, since that would have to mean that God had sexual relations with a women.

In the book, Ravi says that this is an interesting problem, since the Qur'an itself states that Jesus was born by a virgin birth (Surah 19:19-21). The Qur'an claims that this happened when Mary was confronted by the Angel Gabriel, and he "breathed in the sleeve of Mary's shirt, amd thus she conceived" (this is not a quote directly from the text of the Qur'an, but a note at the bottom of the page to help explain what these verses meant).

So all this to say, i find it interesting that Muslims would say that Jesus couldnt be the son of God, because that would mean God had to have had sex with a women, when in the Qur'an it clearly states that Jesus was born of virgin birth, only not of the Holy Spirit (as the Bible says), but by the angel Gabriel.

There was also some other interesting stuff that i learned from this chapter, pertaining to certain Islamic beliefs, but i found that one the most interesting.

so far i really recommend this book, and i am really excited for Ravi coming to our campuses!! for more info in his time at Mac/Waterloo/Guelph go to www.thewaytruthlife.com