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FAQ 1. Is there a God?
There is no proof to satisfy the skeptic. People tend to pre-define God. Then, based on that definition, others argue against his existence.

Western thought is founded on Aristotelian logic that demands definition. Bible thought, on the other hand, is founded on relational dynamics. Therefore the question is not how do I define God, but rather, what is God to me. Ultimately, God is real insofar as I relate to him. It's about relationship.

What happens if we don't define God? What if we leave wide open the concept, the nature, and the description of God? What if we remove all human mind control and start with the innate possibility that there is something objective out there called God.

Even the most renowned and knowledgeable scientists respect the fact that there is some superior overriding intelligence that guides the formation of things over the billions of years. Without some brains behind it all, the degree of probability is too great and makes the existence of earth and of life on earth more impossible than the existence of God.

Allowing that possibility is the beginning of an important quest for every human being. How can we find out more about this being? Is there any other information out there that can clarify this being? And the answer is yes. There is this innate probing inside the head of every person that there's got to be something.

First, there is the earth itself with all its incredible complexities. How many species of plants, of animals, of insects need to be identified before the awe points us to an incredible creative designer? We live in an era where factories mass-produce things to look exactly the same. Can we even imagine making a trillion human beings each one of whom has a different DNA, fingerprints, eye prints, voice prints, etc. All this is unfathomable without realizing a Creator behind it, a Creator that has some kind of beauty and purpose in mind. And for the sake of simplicity, we call that Creator God.

Second, a God of this creative ability is allowed the freedom to share little insights about who he is and have these revelations written down by selected personnel. Over the centuries, these are recorded in what we call the Bible. And when we do an honest reading of the Bible, it is not about religious behavior, nor historical data, nor scientific information. It is a resource to discover the Creator and relate to him. He even tells us in there that he doesn't want to be described or named. He is "I AM" which means he exists as he is and wants to be recognized as he is. The existence of God is not about proof. It is about relating to him. That's what he wants you to know and experience.

FAQ 2. Why is there evil, pain, death?
Evil proves that there is a God. In order for evil to exist, there has to be a standard against which to measure it. If you do not have a standard, then there is no good. How can it be wrong to do harm, to steal, to abuse, or to kill if there is no standard? Who came along and imposed these "ideals" on us. But because we innately sense the wrongness of certain things, because we innately sense that evil exists, we also must innately know that there is the opposite that elicits a standard. And for the sake of simplicity, we attribute that standard to God.

The greatest evils that we struggle with are major ones like starvation, massacres, epidemics, or natural disasters. How can a good God, who could intervene, allow these things to occur? The answer, of course, lies in the combination of freedom and logic. We are free to act but with every action, there is a resulting consequence. There lies at the root of every human heart this desire to please the self at the expense of anyone else. How we eat, what we keep, where we live, what we do are all choices we are free to make. With each choice there is a created law of logical consequence that determines outcomes of our choices.

The point is that God has given that responsibility to us. We are not puppets to be controlled. We are invited to participate with God in bringing wholeness and health to the world. We have enough food and enough resources to meet all the world's needs.

What we're short of is enough love to conquer the evil. We remain self-focused greedy humans. We ourselves are the ultimate cause of these evils. We hoard rather than share. We want to get rich more than we want to love. We accumulate rather than share. We tend to self-indulge rather than love our neighbour as ourselves. God gives us the choice to respond. Evil results not from God's lack of intervention, but our lack of it.

Pain is actually a gift. Pain is a word we use to describe the message the brain receives when the nervous system is working properly. Pain is in essence a warning signal. And when we feel pain, the message translates into counter action. The pain of a cut makes you put on a bandage. The cramp in your leg makes you stop running. The pain in your head makes you pop a Tylenol. The pain in your heart makes you share with a friend. The value of pain, however, doesn't make us like it. So we complain about pain.

There are many pains for which we have not yet discovered the cure. We refer to these as chronic pain experiences. When someone dies after a lengthy battle with pain we express relief for him or her, "At least she's out of pain." Our lack of ability to take away pain or knowing how to respond to it lends us to blame God for its presence. He should take it away. When he does so taking the person's life, we get a little angry with him.

That leads us to the issue of death. If God is real and makes life, why would he allow death to be part of the scene?

Quite frankly, we need to see death as the means to life rather than the end to life. In the Bible death is compared to a seed placed in the ground in order to grow new life. The seasons of each year are reminders of how death is the means by which new life springs forth and feeds the life that already is. The trouble is that we have a hard time focusing on any kind of life beyond what we in our limited minds of reason can see. To fathom a life for which this life is only a seed is evaluated by most people as naïve. So what we really require with respect to death is an attitude change. When the right attitude is there, death is an exciting tunnel you get to go through to the incredible life on the other side. That's not naïve; it's a great way to live now.

FAQ 3. Who is this Jesus anyway?
Some man enters the scene on this earth just like any of us do, lives out his life as a renown teacher, exercises some miraculous powers, protests the political system and dies for it, and we make him into a hero worthy of worship. What is that?

But let's evaluate a different scenario. The Creator of diversity, the Developer of standards, the Designer of family embarks on a personal journey. He enters the world he created for a close up and personal look. His interest in his own creation entices him to enter it. He does so in the form of its most complex being. He chooses to go through the same channel as everyone else so he enters a womb. He is born in a stable and lives with a carpenter and his wife for 30 years. He grows, learns, and studies like everyone else. He experiences family, labor, relationships, temptation, hunger, thirst, parties, funerals, sadness, joy, anger, rest, exhaustion, pain, suffering, and finally death.

But he is different because, while he goes through life's experiences, he is also the originator of life. His visit to humanity is a mission. It has the purpose of restoring other people to the God who made them. Having the authority to do whatever, God attaches meaning to his own Son's death. His death therefore means that all rejection of God (sin) and irreligious behavior is "relayed" to this God-Man who died. And when you believe that, then you can rejoice in the fact that your wrongs are removed, your sin is buried, your fines are paid. You can't help but love someone taking the rap for you.

To further prove the effectiveness of this, the God-Man who died and is buried, rises from death and the grave three days later. Even death has no power over the Creator. Resurrection is proof!

Belief in all this gets you cleared of your negative past through this forgiveness method of God, but added into the package, absolutely free, is the hope and promise of new life.

FAQ 4. Why are Christians and churches so flakey and fakey? They aren't.

There are numerous pockets of them who are. There have been historical eras where many are. Our human tendency to generalize makes us come to the conclusion that Christians are religious weirdoes.

Reality? God makes ordinary people, each of them unique, to live ordinary lives, each of them unique, in his beautiful world. He invites them to do so with a spiritual awareness and connection to himself. He provides that connection through personally identifying with us. He becomes one of us. That's who Jesus Christ is. He entered this world to restore the broken relationship God and people. The restored way of living in this world makes that living much more exciting and meaningful. That's not flakey. That's relevant!

There are flakes and fakes - that's obvious. Who they are, we cannot say but you may have experienced some. Don't let those who got it all wrong ruin it for you. You have the opportunity to get it right - the way God intended. And then it's fun!

That there are churches that have developed over the centuries into religious monstrosities is also evident. But do not let that deter you from developing the personal satisfaction that Jesus came to bring you. Don't let that deter you from finding a church that actually helps you live out your life in a real fulfilled way as intended.

Ultimately the church is not at all an organization, but a group of people who get together to support and encourage one another in life. There will be typical human errors, flaws, and hurts within the group, but then that is normal in any family. The church is God's family. Everything is not going to run smoothly. But love prevails, because we're family.

FAQ 5. How do you know there is life after death? You know because Jesus rose from the grave.

Historical evidence bears out that truth. There is more evidence for the resurrection of Jesus than most historical events that we readily accept as true.

The Bible explains that the reason Jesus arose was to fill us with the expectation of our own resurrections. He is the first; we are guaranteed to follow.

One of the reasons many people struggle with life after death or heaven is because at some point in history someone painted a picture of what it would look like and it seems way too fairy tale for the reasonable person to accept.

Jesus never described what heaven would look like; he described what it would be like. Heaven, eternal life, in terms of "being" rather than "looking", is living as we do now, except that it will be life with God, face-to-face acquaintance. Heaven will come down again, as it did in Jesus, and be united with earth. Life will then be free of anyone rejecting God because his existence is with us. We will experience life in all its fullness, without evil, pain, and death.

You can believe in life after death on the basis of being alive now. Life now is almost like proof of the life to come.

Scientists tell you that the probability factor of life on earth is, from the practical standpoint, impossible. You would not exist without an intelligence force. Fact is, there is life here and now. Since that is true for life now, it is equally true of life after this one. The same superior intelligence, God, ensures it's going to happen.

To someone who chooses faith, no explanation is necessary. To someone who chooses to ignore faith, no explanation is sufficient.

Many would accuse Christians of naïve belief. But here's the thing. When you believe, i.e. have faith, you live life here and now with hope and joy. Life is great! When you live sans faith, you have no hope and joy. So I guess even for your life on this earth, the quality of life is your choice.

FAQ 6. Why are Christians so exclusive and judgmental?

Christians believe that everyone on earth counts and everyone on earth is equal and everyone on earth really matters to God. It is for that reason that they want everyone on earth to believe in this God who made them and have the relationship with him that will allow them to enjoy life and purpose.

Christians are not against other religions. They merely try to explain to religious people that religion is ultimately meaningless to God. There are no rules or practices or rituals that count. There is only the spiritual relationship. And everyone is invited to this truth.

Having that as a basic truth is not exclusivity but inclusivity. It is not judgmental but loving invitation. Jesus came for everyone. God has patience with people to discover this reality. That's why the world and life as it is here and now continues. People need more time.

Telling people that Jesus is the way and the only way does not make the Christian a self-righteous bigot. It is passing on what God himself has shared in his personal revelation, accessible to everyone equally. All religions adhere to a leader that has had a great revelation. The people follow that revelation but do not have direct personal access to it. In Christianity, it is for each person to experience.

All religions adhere to a leader who lived great and then died. Only in Christianity is the leader still alive and eager to live inside people's hearts and minds, not in a controlling way, but in a connecting way.

FAQ 7. How could a good God send anyone to hell?

God doesn't send anyone to hell. In fact hell is not a place. It is an experience.

The church has always taught that Jesus descended into hell. He did not go anywhere. What it means is that he experienced total rejection from the Creator God. He was alone in his humanness. He was without life and purpose.

Some people who have fought very difficult times in life describe their lives as hell on earth. They will go so far as to say that since hell can't be any worse than this, they refuse to believe in God. The irony of that lies in its accuracy. Since some feel they have already lived hell while on earth, why would they possibly want to continue that dreadful experience? It ought to lead those people to take whatever possible path might bring relief. Jesus experienced hell so you wouldn't have to. That's worth following.

Sadly, some creative artist took a few metaphors from the Bible and painted a picture in the mind of Christian culture of hell as a location of fire where people burned for eternity. If you're good you avoid the place; if you're bad, you go there. This is not true.

As a metaphor, the fire powerfully depicts the degree of pain when you experience rejection. When you experience a burn from a fire of any kind, the pain is extreme. We measure the pain by the degree of the burn. We don't want 3rd degree burn pain just like we don't want rejection pain. It is just as severe. And the purpose of that metaphor is to invite you to a life of love rather than loneliness, a life of inclusion rather than exclusion, a life of goodness rather than evil, a life of purpose rather than mere existence. Simply put, that life is accessible through faith in Jesus Christ.

So if there is no hell location, what happens to those who experience this painful rejection? They are described in the Bible as people who experience the second death. You cannot live without God so, when he leaves the scene, life is gone. When you understand God as the Creator of life, then it makes sense that his absence leaves you lifeless. Don't go there.

FAQ 8. Why does the church want money? It doesn't.

If you ask why does the church takes offerings, that's a different question.

God worked out a system with the human race. It goes like this. He owns everything. So whatever you get while you're on this earth is ultimately a blessing from him. Yes, you might work for it, but even that is his gift to you. You are asked to take proper care of what you are given. He could take it all away in an instant. Even your life could be taken away and then all your "things" mean nothing.

Here's how God works. He is saying that out of what he gives you, would you be willing to copy him by helping others and supporting his ongoing work through your giving.

For example, I will give you $100 if you would do me the favor of giving $10 of it toward a specific project. Hmmm, let me think about it. $90 profit to pass on $10. Sounds like a no-brainer bargain. I hand you the $100 and you go out for a fancy dinner that cost $100. And you say, "Whoops, no more $10 to give. Oh well." You have now broken trust.

God gives you everything you have and trusts you to share part of it with others and in order to finance his work. Sometimes you have a hard time with the amount he's given you because it's easy to spend. So you don't share. You feel like you can't share. Now you have broken trust.

God says he wants to flood you with his blessing. That doesn't always mean money. It is not a get rich scheme. God's blessing includes health and happiness, faithful relationships and children, fewer life problems and struggles, strength to deal with them, etc. God pours out those blessings and many more when we copy him in giving.

What the church does is provide for you that opportunity to pass on what God has entrusted to you. That way, he can keep on trusting you and bless you in all these various ways. The offering is ultimately a service that the church provides to you to make your life better. The church's responsibility is to take your passed on gift and use it for the best of God's kingdom. You extend your faith in God to your faith in the church leaders whom God has appointed to ensure good Kingdom spending.

So please don't ever give money to the church on the basis of a plea or need. Give because of the trust God has placed in you.