Gordon: Acts is, I think, the most inspirational book in the Bible.   It is all about what Jesus is doing through the ongoing work of the church – through people like us!   It is all about how we are so futile when we try by ourselves, but so powerful when we allow God to work through us.   It’s amazing that the work of Jesus is still going on, through amazing characters like Paul, but equally through weaklings like Timothy, business women like Lydia, or cool mentor-type married couples like Priscilla and Aquila.   Plus, there’s no chapter 29.   The story isn’t over yet.

Farquhar: For me, Ephesians is the most inspirational book in the Bible.  Many of the letters in the New Testament were written to deal with heresy or a specific problem, but Ephesians was written to encourage and inspire the young church at Ephesus.

We read that in love our Heavenly Father has chosen us to be adopted into his family – redeemed through the blood of Son.  Then he’s given us the Holy Spirit, like a deposit, guaranteeing our eternal life.  That’s only in the first half of the first chapter!

Then my favourite verses: in Chapter 2 (v8-10) - For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no-one can boast.  For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
So our salvation is an undeserved gift and God now has plans to use us!

Chapter 3 reminds me of the freedom and confidence I have to approach the Almighty God in prayer and praise.

Chapter 4 urges me to ‘live a life worthy of the calling you have received (v1)’.  It tells of the unity we must have in the church as we use our different gifts, ‘speak the truth in love (v15)’, and ‘forgive as Christ forgave us (v32)’.

Chapter 5 & 6 show us what living as ‘children of light (5:8)’ looks like in our speech, actions, worship, work, marriages and families.  The letter closes with the famous ‘Battle’ passage reminding us that this ain’t a walk in the park.  We’ve got to put on the armour God gives us so we can stand firm no matter what comes our way in life.  Powerful stuff!

This book is just bursting with truth and love.  I wish I could read it right through every morning to focus my mind on my loving Saviour, while also remembering that he’s my Lord and demands I live each day in the light.

Yes.   (But not always.)

But that is totally dependent on Jesus being who he said he was.   Many people who aren’t Christians believe in life after death.   That’s fine; I think that maybe God designed us that way, so that we would at the very least think about it.   In fact, the Bible is very clear that human death is not the way things should be; it is actually a punishment for our sin and failure to obey God throughout our lives.

But here’s where Jesus fits in.   In John’s Gospel, Chapter 14 (v1-4), Jesus said:
“Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me.   In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?   And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.”

What that means is that after death, there is still a home for us to go to.   But look carefully at one phrase - If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?   If this weren’t the case, Jesus would be a liar!   And he knew it!   He was saying, the only way you can be sure of life after death is if you trust me on this.   If you’ve read a few Pot Shots, it’s probably becoming clear: we at Roots think Jesus is amazing.   He’s worthy of our trust, in fact, he is our only hope if we want to experience real lasting joy both here in this world, after we die, and looking a bit further ahead to the resurrection – when we’ll get new bodies that’ll be perfect in every way.   Without Jesus, that is just nonsense.

I also said, “But not always.”   There’s not always life after death.   This is one of the things that really terrifies me about the Bible, it says that without Jesus, there’s more death after death.   In the last book of the Bible, Jesus called it the Second Death.   Death, in the Bible, is not merely the end of existence: it is not like a light bulb that burns out, there’s just no fixing it.   Death is rather seen as separation, the body and soul are separated, and people are separated from each other.   For Jesus to talk about a second death means the separation of death becomes permanent.  

So what’s life supposed to be like?   Joyful?   Happy?   Yes, but also full of service, contentment in work, having real friendships that are based on sharing not only things, but ourselves as well.   The best life is a life that is balanced, has a place for everything, in the right order and right proportion.   The second death Jesus talked about has none of that, only miserable selfishness; only pathetic failure.  

So yes, with Jesus there’s life after death.   Without Jesus there is, but it’s not the sort of life we would look forward to.   The good thing is that Jesus is our hope in this.   He says he has gone before us.   He’s prepared a place for us.   That’s a really comforting truth, because those who follow him, are going where he’s already gone.

Funnily enough, this question is really closely connected to the question about can we know God is talking to us.   That’s because we can only know who God is if we are willing to listen to what God himself is saying to us.   That means we can’t just make up in our minds what God is like.   We might like to forget that, for example, God is just – that would mean we could happily not worry about God actually judging us for the wilful things we do wrong.   But that isn’t listening to what God himself tells us about himself.

The other thing to remember is that listening to God doesn’t just mean hearing him and saying, “Yeah, that’s cool,” but then doing nothing.   God’s message about himself is a message that calls for us to change.   So you can only truly know God if you are willing to change – willing, for example to stop relying on your own abilities, ideas and direction for life, instead recognising God is stronger, smarter and actually better than you and then acting accordingly, with trust in him and his plan for your life.

So who is God?   Short answer – all I know about God is what I know about Jesus.   The Bible says he is the exact imprint of his nature, his character.   A bit like if you covered your face with paint and squashed into onto a sheet of paper, you’d see an image of your own face on the page.   That’s what Jesus and God are like – God is exactly how Jesus appears.   So what’s Jesus like?   Well, just a few things…
• He was willing to come into this world, and die as a substitute for people who didn’t deserve such mercy.
• After he died, God raised him back to life, because he was not worthy of death.
• After that, God raised him to be seated in a position of power and majesty, so now, he is no longer a marginalised Galilean peasant wearing funny looking clothes, he is the King and Lord of all.
• One day, he’s going to come back to this world, and when he does, he’ll be known as King of Kings and Lord of Lords.   He is not, therefore, someone you mess with, disrespect or whose name you use as a petty swear word.
• But he’s also the one who today offers us forgiveness, offers to deal with our guilt and shame, to take away from us any taint of failure.
• He is looking forward to being with me forever, way more than I look forward to being with him.

So, all in all, God is Jesus and he’s amazing.   You can hear some more on this question at our talk, “Who is God?”

I would suppose first of all we need to be clear on a couple of things to start with.
God is vastly more intelligent and in many ways more complex than us.   A bit like us trying to talk to ants, it will only work if God is able to come to our level and talk to us in meaningful ways, and tell us meaningful things.   Given that we can’t talk to ants, if God is revealing anything to us – giving us any sort of message at all – I reckon it is pretty amazing.

The Bible tells us a few things about God’s communication with us.   Broadly speaking we can put his “speech” into two categories.   There’s general things he reveals, normally through the world itself.   Psalm 19 (v1-2) puts it like this:
The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. Day to day pours out speech, and night to night reveals knowledge.

That tells us God is talking to us, by revealing something of what he is like, through everything he has made, i.e. the entire universe.   The New Testament also talks about God making some general things known to us, like in Romans Chapter 1 (v19-20), where Paul writes:
For what can be known about God is plain to [everyone], because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made.

This tells us a little more – because the universe is vast, complex, ordered and amazing, that tells us something about what God is like – he’s vast, complex, orderly and simply amazing.   That is a message God wants us to hear, so in a general way, God is talking to everyone.

More specifically, though, the Bible also tells us about God’s clearest message to this world.   John, the writer of the forth Gospel (called after him) tells us that Jesus’ coming into the world was a Word from God.   He says, in John Chapter 1 (v1-5, 9):
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.   He was in the beginning with God.   All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.   In him was life, and the life was the light of men.   The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it… The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.
There’s a lot in these verses, but generally, what it is saying is that God wanted to give us an even clearer message about his character, about himself.   He sent Jesus into the world to reveal to us what he is like – as John puts it a little later on, full of grace and full of truth.   So God’s message to us in Jesus is a message of love, freedom and faithfulness.   That’s a message we need to hear, because without Jesus, we are missing out on a whole lot of reality.

So, that’s the preliminaries.   God wants to speak to us; he does this generally through everything he made, and more specifically through sending Jesus into the world.   (The Bible, interestingly enough, is all about Jesus coming into the world… that’s the point to the whole story.)

How do we know God’s talking to us?   I’d say he’s gone to a lot of effort to say something important.   The Bible teaches us that we can be sure God is talking to us because the message he’s sending us is meant to change us.  Look, for example, at Hebrews Chapter 4 (v2): For we also have had the gospel preached to us, just as they did; but the message they heard was of no value to them, because those who heard did not combine it with faith.  

So maybe you go to church, or listen to a Christian friend, or come to Roots and you hear something that is compelling you to change – a message that really does insist you ask for God’s free offer of help; or a message that really does offer to deal with the guilt we have; or a message that really does call for us to stop exalting ourselves, and worship someone else.   If that’s the case, we can be sure God is talking to us.

It is when we are ‘dead in our sin’ that God comes and opens our hearts and makes us alive (he enables us to believe in Christ and turn from our sin): When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ (Colossians 2:13).
So it’s not because we are so clever or good that we’ve ‘figured it out’ and so can believe.  It is that God has opened our eyes to see this wonderful truth about himself and about his son Jesus.

We have to make sure that we never look down on others as if we are better than them because we believe.  It is nothing to do with our goodness, it is all to do with the grace of our God.  So when Jesus is approached by someone (Luke 13:23-24) asking for a some statistics about who will be saved, Jesus turns the question back on the questioner and basically tells them to stop looking around at others but first look at their own heart.  If we do this then in love and gratitude to God we will want to share with others what he has done for us.  We won’t look at them as if they are odd and ‘just don’t get it’, instead we’ll look at them with love and if it’s appropriate tell them of the undeserved gift of faith that God has given us.

Rules are for two reasons:  First to show us our sin.  Second to help us live each day for our Heavenly Father.

First things first:
God created all things (this planet, life, fun, sex, alcohol, music…) and he had good reasons for creating each of them.  But as a human race we have abused everything at different times and in different ways. The consequences of this sin (going against God’s plan) can be seen very clearly in our society and our lives. He knows what is the right way and what is wrong way, but we can get confused.        
So near the start of the Bible God gave us some important boundaries in the Ten Commandments – check them out at Exodus Chapter 20.  Throughout the Bible he continued to show us what the right way was.  If we are honest it’s obvious that we cannot stick to the right way through sheer willpower because we are sinful – we are forever doomed to fail unless we trust in God’s power to make our hearts clean within us.

And so to the second reason:
From the moment we accept God as our Father and Jesus as our Saviour and Lord something remarkable happens.  We no longer look at the pages of commandments and ‘rules’ in the Bible as a big boring or frightening list of don’ts.  Instead we see them as given by our loving Father to help us to follow him in this confusing world.  We are thankful and we follow them willingly in God’s power.
Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.  Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is – his good, pleasing and perfect will. Romans 12:2 

This might make it clear for you:  If you look at the commands and rules in the Bible as an annoyance or a really restrictive hassle then you do not want to go God’s way.  It is like a motorist in Edinburgh being stopped by a policeman who tells them they MUST take this map and follow the road all the way to London.  The motorist says they don’t want to go to London but the policeman says, “You have to do as I say – now don’t you dare go any other way than what I’ve told you!”  Of course this driver is going to feel annoyed and a bit scared and will travel along the road south very grudgingly, eventually turning back to get themselves a good lawyer!
But if you look at the commands and rules in the Bible as a gift from God to help you follow him each day then it is like another motorist in Edinburgh.   This time she tells a policeman she is going to London and asks for the best road to travel on to get there.  The policeman takes out his map and shows her the way: he gives her good directions, warnings about speed cameras, how to avoid traffic jams and accidents and finally he gives her his map.  Though it’s a long and tough journey the motorist is so thankful for the map and the guidelines she has for her journey.

OK, we are about see what happens when churches and water collide…hold on tight…

Christening can be a very misleading word as it suggests that you are ‘saved’ and made into a Christian when you are baptized as an infant.  This is totally untrue!

The proper term for what you’re describing is infant baptism.  The child’s believing parent(s) make a public commitment to bring their child up ‘in the training and instruction of the Lord’ (Ephesians 6:4).  Then water is used in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, to act as a public symbol of God’s ‘covenant of grace’ with the believing parent(s) and their family. 
In other words, believers have entered into a covenant with God through the gracious, redeeming gift of Jesus and so now they can bring their children up in prayerful faith rather than petrified fear – trusting God to save them. 

So the baptized child is not saved and automatically made a Christian NOR do the parents say when the child is old enough, “Got you! - you have to be a Christian because you were baptized!”  Of course it’s not like that.
The decision is left to you: will you accept or reject the gift of salvation that God is offering you through Jesus? 

As Christians we often want life to be easy – we want everything to be black and white.  We want someone to tell us that we should listen to this and we can’t listen to that.  Simple.  But God doesn’t just want us to be obedient to him using our heads, but our hearts and wills too.  He wants us to think about our motives for our daily actions.  Why do we do what we do?  

God has made us alive in Christ and so each day we should be eager to do the BEST we can because of what he has done for us.  See Colossians Chapter 3.  The ‘best’ may be different for different people – each of us individually has to pray to God honestly about our own motives and temptations with regards to music, films, places we go, people we hang out with etc.  If we truly are willing to give him our best then he will guide us on all these matters.

David Macleod responded to a similar question on music and also one on drinking for the April Potshot.  The link to it is below. 
The passage he asks each of us to look at is Philippians 4:8-9.

At the time of Jesus’ death the Romans ruled throughout the land of Israel.  Their worst form of execution was crucifixion.  It was a slow and painful way to die.  Death came by suffocation: the weight of the body made breathing almost impossible as the victim began to lose strength. 
It was so gruesome that no Roman citizen was allowed to be executed in this way.  Instead it was used as a powerful warning to those who would dare go against the iron-fisted authority of the Roman Empire.

In Jesus’ case the Jewish chief priests and teachers of the law wanted rid of him because he was claiming to be God.  They believed this was blasphemy, which was punishable by death in Jewish law.  (See Mark 14:53 – 65) 
But because they were under Roman occupation, they had no right to execute anyone (John 18:31).  So they brought him to Pilate (the Roman governor) hoping he would do their dirty work for them.  They claimed that Jesus was opposing payment of taxes to Caesar and claiming to be a king in opposition to the mighty Caesar (Luke 23:1-5). 

Then what followed was a nasty example of mob-pressure and cowardly-leadership.  Though Pilate could find no basis for any charges against Jesus (he knew he was innocent!) he wanted to appease the crowd and save his own neck.  So he handed Jesus over to the Roman soldiers so they could execute him in the most public and horrific way that the Roman Empire had ever invented.

Jesus could easily have freed himself (he hints at that in John 18:36) yet he knew he had to die in this cruel way so that he could be the perfect sacrifice for our sins.  Jesus died on that cross willingly in obedience to his Father and in love for us - to save us from our sins.  Please read Mark Chapter 15    

God cannot forgive our sins simply by saying, “I’m a loving God so I’ll forget all about your sins”.  That’s because he’s a God of perfect justice too.  Our sins have to be punished – we have to pay the price.  But it’s too high for any of us to pay as we are all sinners (For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Romans 3:23). 

When we see how perfect and holy God is then we are utterly horrified by our sin against him.  Then by faith we see that Jesus came and died to pay the price for all those who will believe in him.  But we cannot accept this gift of salvation while holding onto our self-centred, sinful lives. 

So we turn to God in sorrow because of our sin and this leads us to repent.  We ask the perfect, righteous God to forgive us because of what Jesus has done for us.  As we are forgiven through repentance and faith in Jesus, we are saved and the way is cleared for us to call the perfect and just Almighty God…our Father! 
Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God.  “The time has come,” he said.  “The Kingdom of God is near.  Repent and believe the good news!” Mark 1:14-15  
If you would like to read more about repentance there is a more detailed article at this link: http://www.gracevalley.org/radio_trans/repent.html