John 14:6
Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and Eternal Life
6 Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
Matthew 24:35
Jesus' Words Will Never Pass
35 Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.
John 17:3
God and His Son Give Eternal Life
3 Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.
John 13:34-35
Love One Another
34 “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.35 By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
Matthew 22:36-40
The Two Greatest Commandments -Love God and Love Neighbor
36 “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”
37 Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
Luke 10:36-37
Have Mercy on Our Neighbors
36 “Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?”
37 The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy on him.”
Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.”
Mustard Seed Sized Faith
20 He replied, “Because you have so little faith. Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.”
Jesus on Helping Others
34 “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. 35 For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36 I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’
Matthew 6:19-21
The Important Things of Life - The Eternities of the Treasures of Heaven
19 “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 20 But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
1 Corinthians 13:4-13
Faith, Hope, and Love
4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
8 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part,10 but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. 11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. 12 For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
Blaise Pascal had a theory called Pascal's Wager...Pascal said, “Belief is a wise wager...Granted that faith cannot be proved, what harm will come to you if you gamble on its truth and it proves false?...If you gain, you gain all; if you lose, you lose nothing...Wager, then, without hesitation, that He exists.” ...He also said, "It is not certain that everything is uncertain."...
The wager is that there is either a God or not a God...There are two chances here, there is a God or there is no God...Therefore, there is a fifty-fifty chance that God exists...If there is no God one loses nothing...You just die and nothing exists after your death...But given the chance that God exists, why not believe in Him...If one believes in Him, then they will have an eternity of life and happiness with God and His Son...But if one bets wrong, then they will have an eternal life of agony...Pascal wrote about certainties and uncertainties in his Pensee's...Pascal wrote of certain uncertainties that God exists, but that one should still live his life seeking God and believing in Him...And by seeking and believing one's faith could perhaps grow...But as one studies Pascal's wager they can see that doubt lies in the wager...I have sometimes thought , to place a wager on our faith seems belittling and brings faith to a below average belief...Pascal and Pascal's Wager does not prove that there is a God, or that there is not a God...Although this is an interesting view and belief about God...No one today, can explain to another one the Great Mystery of God...The great mathematician shows us that there is some doubt in believing in God...But believes all should seek Him...And in this wager does not show a deep faith, but it is a start in faith, especially if one continues to seek and study His Ways and the Ways of His Son -the Jesus Way...
Jesus teaches us the eternities...Jesus teaches us about love, about forgiveness, about mercy, about faith, about helping others, and about His Father...When we really think about the things that He teaches and taught us while He was on earth, one can see why His words have not passed away...And the eternities are the most important things in our lives...They are the most important things in life...These things will not wear out...Thieves cannot steal these things from us...His eternal teachings led St. Paul to tell us that the three most important things in life are faith, hope, and love...And the most important thing in life is love...When one has in his heart -love, faith, knows how to forgive, mercy toward others, hope, and love of his neighbor and love of the Father and Son, he has the proper and important things in his life...And through love, faith, forgiveness, mercy, hope -we learn about God...
And what is strange about God and the great and important things He represents...They cannot be proven...God cannot be proven...Can we explain God, or the great mystery of God?...How does one prove eternal life?...How do we go about explaining all that Jesus teaches us?...
Dietrich Bonhoeffer said this of God's paradoxical ways...He declared, "He loves the lost, the forgotten, the insignificant, the outcasts, the weak, and the broken...Where men say, 'lost,' He says, 'found'; where men say, 'condemned,' He says, 'redeemed'; where men say, 'no,' He says 'yes.'...Where men look with indifference or superiority, He looks with burning love, such as nowhere else is to be found...Where men say, 'contemptible!,' God cries, 'blessed.'"...
These important things in life that really matter cannot be proven...They are intangible and exist in our hearts...These important things are in our beliefs and are a philosophy we have in each of our personal belief systems...Our belief system is the undercurrent to our actions and deeds...Our belief systems express and show who we are by our personal deeds and actions...Our belief systems guide us to do what we do each day...And in our belief systems are those many things that we believe are the Truth, and which cannot be proven...
It is not certain that everything is uncertain...We do not know the importance of what we do not know...Our minds do not seem to understand this...Because the mind is always clinging to material things, to earthly things, to pleasurable things, and to the things we desire...While the mind and heart should be clinging and reaching for those things which cannot be proven...We should be clinging to the eternal things that Jesus teaches...Our minds should recognize that doubt and uncertainty are a part of faith...We must hold on to those things that cannot be proven and often, or at least on some days, those things that bring us doubt...For in these doubtful days and in our doubtful thoughts lie the great Truths of Jesus...And in these great Truths, where some doubt does lay there are those great Truths...And in those great Truths are the treasures of life...Faith is the great and wonderful wager and belief that there is a Father and a Son in heaven...