Your Potential

January 27, 2012 in Theology with 0 Comments

Photo Credit: Jonathan Pio

The following is a re-post from Patrick Hoban’s old blog. – Admin

The following is a quote from arctic explorer Ben Saunders:

“No one else is the authority on your potential.”

What a great comment.

Ben is one of only four people to solo ski to the North Pole.

His first try failed when he and another explorer realized they could not continue the journey. After failing in his quest, Ben found himself discouraged, emotionally depleted and in deep financial debt. His days were full of empty, mindless TV watching.

But after three years he tried again, this time without the aid of a traveling partner. He was going to reach the arctic solo. He reached it and accomplished what many discouraged him to do. He realized that no one else was the authority on his potential.

How I wish we could get a grasp on this truth.

God is the only one that set limits on our potential, and His Word says that, “we can do all things through Christ.”

As I listened to Ben Saunders tell his story, I could only think how we as Christians give up before we reach our goal. We allow others, circumstances and hindrances to dictate our potential. We settle for second best. I refuse to let anything, including any propensity to doubt, to stop me from believing that with God’s grace I can achieve the dreams He has put in my heart.

Link to Ben’s talk on his North Pole adventure after the jump:  Continue Reading…

Luther

January 20, 2012 in History, Theology with 0 Comments

The following is a re-post from Patrick Hoban’s old blog. – Admin

Every so often in the history of the Church, God raises up a person to lead her into renewed truth. Renewed truth, because it is not new, but was lost and now is found. Ignatius of Alexandria was one who defended the doctrine of the Trinity in the fourth century. William Tyndale promoted the Bible to be read in the native tongue in the sixteenth century.

Luther was one of those whom God used to bring truth to the earth. Luther revealed the lost truth of “justification by grace through faith alone.” This was the truth preached by the Apostle Paul and Augustine of Hippo, but which was lost through the ingorance of the dark ages. We need men like this today.

Currently, I’m reading his TREATISE ON GOOD WORKS. His depth of understand is truly astonishing. Unlike many modern writers, his writing brought light and understading of theological truths. Here are a few quotes:

Dead Works

“We find many who pray, fast, establish endowments, do this or that, lead a good life before men, and yet if you should ask them whether they are sure that what they do pleases God, they say, ‘No’; they do not know, or they doubt. And there are some very learned men, who mislead them, and say that it is not necessary to be sure of this; and yet, on the other hand, these same men do nothing else but teach good works. Now all these works are done outside of faith, therefore they are nothing and altogether dead.

“In this faith all works become equal, and one is like the other; all distinctions between works fall away, whether they be great, small, short, long, few or many. For the works are acceptable not for their own sake, but because of the faith which alone is.”  Continue Reading…

Aliens

January 13, 2012 in Theology with 0 Comments

Photo Credit: Pierre Wolfer

The following is a re-post from Patrick Hoban’s old blog. – Admin

A member of my church emailed me this week asking a question about the existence of aliens. A question came up in her Bible study and she remembered that I talked about it once. Here is my reply:

There are extra-terrestrial beings, they are called angels. So, in a sense there are aliens, but they have no fleshy form.

The whole concept of alien life on other planets comes from the idea that all life on Earth evolved over a period of time.

This concept dismisses the Creation story in Genesis, and God’s hand in the matter. The idea goes further, that if life here evolved from simple organisms, life most probably evolved on other planets. This is a matter of probability; because there are countless galaxies, there will be countless solar systems with planets with the probability that on at least one of those planets life has evolved.

From the standpoint of creation, God would have made these creatures on other planets at the same time as he made the earth and the stars. God could have easily done this, but did He?  Continue Reading…

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