Life Matters - December 31, 2025
‘’Gratitude helps us see what is there instead of what isn’t.” quoth the sage. As this spinning orb completes its approximate 2025th trip around the sun since the year of our Lord when God took on flesh and was born of a virgin, Mary, in the town of Bethlehem, and as we begin orbit number 2026 we reflect on the past year and have hopes for the new year. ‘’Happy New Year!”, we say to each other, by which we mean many things, good things. That is, when our hearts and minds are properly engaged in what we are saying. And we stay disengaged from whether others really mean it. That is one of the beauties of Christianity; is it not? That we can mean what we say and trust that others do as well.
‘’Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, soul, mind and strength, and thy neighbor as thyself,” so taught the One from Whom Christianity derived its name. The One from Whom His Holy Spirit was, and is, received. The One who seeks the lost. The One who saves to the uttermost those who come to Him. The One who gives eternal life to all the repentant who trust Him for Life, true liberty, true happiness, that gives direction, calms the heart, steadies the mind. The Life that has its roots in eternity even as it flowers here.
Christianity is not the only religion with belief in an afterlife, which is one of the indicators that we all stem from the same roots. Primitive Native Americans believed in something they called the ‘happy hunting grounds’, a reflection on what they expected perfection to be like. Hinduism and Buddhism both have beliefs about reincarnation again and again. Hinduism until a state of perfection and divinity is reached giving access to something like a paradise and Buddhists hope to be reincarnated into a perfect state of Buddhism, whatever that means.
Muslims teach of an afterlife where everyone is judged and either cast into hell or accepted into one of seven heavens depending on how much good (as interpreted by their traditions) one has done compared to the evil (as interpreted by their traditions). A traditional Hadith declares 72 virgins in paradise will be given to each man who dies fighting for Jihad (traditional Muslim ‘holy war’) or even by a variety of other deaths as long as his mind is fully engaged and prepared to fight in Jihad to the finish, even if it means death.
Atheism claims there is no God nor such thing as an afterlife, that there is nothing to be understood beyond this material world. Nothing to be understood beyond the science helping us to understand this material world. They have become so dedicated to using ‘science’ to disprove the concept of ‘God created’ that any proof of Intelligent Design is met with a millions of years ‘scientific’ argument.
But the atheist has at least two insurmountable problems; that life has to miraculously emerge from non-life, and that something has to miraculously emerge from nothing. The simple question of; Where does matter come from? exposes the doctrine of atheism as a fraud that atheists religiously hold to. By holding on to materialist doctrine they remain unable to prove by empirical science they prove atheism to be religious in nature. Science is provable and repeatable. If not, then it is no longer the definition of science. It does, however, fit the definition for science fiction. Or, loosely, of religion. (See Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary)
Humankind is religious by nature. God made us this way so we earnestly seek Him as there is no other way to eternal life—eternal bliss because Jesus—God in the flesh—was born a baby to bring about the salvation of all those who voluntarily surrender our own way and believe on the Word of God in the form of Jesus Christ.
All religion, whether organized or merely personal, that ends with man being able to make himself good is proven wrong every day by all the evil in the world.
While all religions have a few things in common, Christianity is the only one with a God caring enough, humble enough, loving enough, and powerful enough, to reduce Himself to the form of a little baby, born of a virgin, in a stable, heralded by angels, raised to become a laborer in a carpenter shop, then becoming a Spirit-filled teacher, a healer, an advocate for sinners, becoming the very propitiation for those sins by His blood shed for us. Proving His divinity by rising from the grave, showing Himself alive to His disciples, being among them for forty days, then going up alive in the clouds, angels then appearing to His disciples, assuring them that Jesus will return. In the same way He went. This is the Hope of every Christian. The second coming of Jesus Christ. When He will judge, and set right, all things.
No other religion has this Hope. No other religion has this much Love. It is a love not soon shaken from the hope and expectation that others love also and mean well. Indeed, I Corinthians 13:7 assures us that love hopes all things, that it rejoices in the Truth, verse 6. Christianity is a religion of hope, of rejoicing, of gratitude. Gratitude helps us to spirituallysee the riches of God’s glory that is hidden to our physical eyes. Gratitude also helps us focus and give thanks for the blessings we have rather than complain about those we have not.Gratitude is a way of life. A healthy way of life. Gratitude makes us gracious.
We dare not, however, allow graciousness and gratitude to weaken our resistance to the devil, the enemy of our souls, and very often, the enemy of our bodies. Nor to weaken our resistance to his minions. We are in spiritual warfare. Let us keep on the full armor of God. (Ephesians 6:11) Deception often happens in stealthy, small, increments. ‘The weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds.” (II Corinthians 10:5)
Life Matters!