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If there’s one thing University has taught me, it’s this!

I am a pastor.

When most people hear that, they assume my job is to stand on a stage and hand out neat, pre-packaged, unquestionable answers. They assume my worldview is fragile, built on avoiding hard questions, and that my ultimate goal is to get people to just shut up and believe.

But before I ever stepped behind a pulpit, I spent years in university lecture halls getting my assumptions aggressively dismantled. I went into higher education thinking I had the world figured out. I left realizing that almost everything I thought I understood was just a cartoon sketch of a much more complex reality.

And if there is one thing university taught me—a lesson that completely overhauled both my theology and my mental health—it is that cheap certainty is the enemy of a resilient mind.

Which brings us to the core question: Why are we so terrified of saying “I don’t know,” and why does pretending we have it all figured out actually make us incredibly anxious?

If you don’t understand the mechanics of how you form your beliefs, you are navigating life’s hardest moments with a map drawn by a toddler.

The Science of Knowing Nothing

In 2002, researchers at Yale University conducted a fascinating study. They asked people a simple question: “How well do you understand how a zipper works?”

Most people rated their understanding very high. It’s a zipper. You pull it up, the teeth lock. Simple.

Then, the researchers handed them a piece of paper and said: “Great. Now write down, step-by-step, exactly how the mechanical components of the teeth interlock.”

Almost no one could do it. When forced to actually explain the mechanism, people realized they had absolutely no idea how a zipper worked. Their confidence plummeted.

The researchers discovered that humans suffer from a persistent illusion: we confuse our familiarity with a concept for actual mastery of it. We think we understand how the economy works, how depression works, or how theology works, simply because we recognize the words.

When you apply this to everyday life, it’s dangerous. But when you apply it to the core beliefs that hold your identity together, it is a psychological time bomb.

If you build your life, your faith, or your mental health strategies on the Illusion of Explanatory Depth, your foundation is made of sand. The moment a real storm hits—a job loss, a divorce, a diagnosis—you realize you don’t actually know how the structural beams of your life work.

The Evidence: Cognitive Closure vs. Epistemic Curiosity

To build a resilient mind, you have to look at the psychological data on how people handle uncertainty.

Evidence shows that human beings have varying levels of what psychologists call the “Need for Cognitive Closure” (NFC). People with a high need for cognitive closure are deeply uncomfortable with ambiguity. They want a firm answer immediately, even if it’s the wrong answer. They prefer a comfortable lie over a complex truth.

But when researchers measure the mental health outcomes of these people compared with people who tolerate ambiguity, the results are stark.

People who demand instant, black-and-white certainty experience higher cortisol spikes (stress hormones) when they encounter situations that defy their expectations. Their rigidity makes them fragile.

On the flip side, evidence suggests that people who possess “Epistemic Curiosity”—the drive to seek out new information and explore complex problems without needing immediate resolution—are highly resilient against anxiety and depression. When their worldview is challenged, they don’t panic. They get curious.

This is the greatest lesson university ever taught me. It didn’t teach me what to think; it taught me how to dig. It taught me that it is completely acceptable to sit in the tension of a massive, unsolved problem without hyperventilating.

There is an ancient piece of wisdom in the Bible that mirrors this exact psychological framework. Proverbs 25:2 says: “It is the glory of God to conceal a matter; to search out a matter is the glory of kings.”

Think about the sheer weight of that statement. It doesn’t say, “It is the glory of kings to blindly accept what they are told.” It says the mark of leadership, maturity, and royalty is the willingness to pick up a shovel and search it out.

God is not threatened by your shovel. Truth is not fragile. If something is actually true, it can survive the scrutiny of your hardest questions.

The Counterargument

Now, here is where the skeptics and the deeply religious both push back.

“If you spend your whole life questioning everything, you’ll never stand for anything. Isn’t faith all about believing without needing the evidence? Isn’t relentless questioning just a slippery slope to becoming a cynical, paralyzed nihilist?”

The claim sounds plausible, but here’s where it breaks down.

There is a massive difference between chronic cynicism and diligent investigation. Cynicism is just another form of intellectual laziness—it assumes everything is a lie so it never has to do the work of finding the truth.

And regarding faith? Blind acceptance isn’t faith; it is abdication. Faith isn’t pretending you aren’t standing in the dark; faith is keeping your eyes open while you search for the light switch. If your worldview requires you to shut off your brain, ignore primary evidence, and never ask “why,” you don’t have a worldview. You have a cult.

When you actually “search out a matter”—whether that’s reading the primary literature of a scientific study, going to therapy to understand your trauma triggers, or deeply studying the historical context of your religious texts—you don’t lose your convictions. You temper them. You forge them in fire so they don’t snap the second life hits you with a hammer.

What This Means For You

This means you need to stop outsourcing your certainty.

If you suffer from anxiety, stop accepting the surface-level TikTok diagnosis and start digging into the actual neuroscience of your nervous system.

If you are wrestling with your faith, stop feeling guilty for doubting and start treating your doubt as an invitation to study deeper than you ever have before.

Treat your brain like a muscle. When you lift heavy weights, the muscle fibers literally tear. It hurts. But when they rebuild, they are denser and stronger. When you expose your beliefs to hard questions, you experience cognitive dissonance. It hurts. But the worldview that rebuilds on the other side is practically bulletproof.

Limitations

Let’s state the boundaries clearly. Evidence doesn’t establish that we can fully understand everything.

You can search out a matter for fifty years and still hit the bedrock of human limitation. You will never have perfect, 100% complete data on why a specific tragedy happened, how the universe began, or how consciousness fully operates. The goal of searching isn’t to achieve absolute omniscience. The goal of searching is to move from fragile arrogance to resilient humility. We know that the act of searching builds mental flexibility, but we also know that demanding perfect answers leads right back to anxiety.

The Takeaway

Stop settling for the cartoon sketch of reality just because it’s easier to look at.

Truth doesn’t mind being questioned, only fragile egos do; the deeper you dig, the stronger the foundation you actually build.

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UPDATE 2026

Greetings NOUS!

Our former page and library system is a bit disorganized with all of our NOUS pages being scattered and all over the place on the website. Posts will be regularly updated but it will take some time for everything to transpire correctly. Thank you for your patience!

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What is Nous?

NOUS is essentially a public-facing science and health blog focused on helping ordinary people understand the science behind mental health, neuroscience, and social determinants of health.

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I read primary literature. Here’s why you should too!

You are making decisions about your brain, your body, and your life based on a game of telephone.

Every day, you see a headline or a 60-second video that tells you exactly how to fix your mental health. “New study says scrolling causes ADHD.” “Science proves cold plunges cure depression.” “This morning routine permanently resets your dopamine.”

You panic. You buy a dopamine-detox course. You freeze yourself in a tub of ice water at 5 AM.

But if you actually tracked down the study that spawned that headline, you’d realize it was done on 14 college students who self-reported their screen time while drinking Red Bulls, or a dozen mice swimming in a bucket.

The people feeding you information aren’t necessarily malicious villains. But they are playing a game where nuance loses and absolutes win.

Which brings us to the big question: Why should you—someone who isn’t a scientist, doesn’t have a PhD, and has zero interest in reading boring academic PDFs—care about primary literature?

Because if you don’t read the primary source, you aren’t consuming science. You are consuming marketing.

Let me tell you about a guy named Mark. Mark struggles with brain fog and low-level anxiety. He follows a wellness influencer who posts an energetic video with giant yellow text: “STUDY: Lavender Oil Cures Anxiety Better Than Big Pharma!”

Mark hates his medication side effects, so he throws out his pills and buys a $40 bottle of premium lavender extract from the influencer’s link in bio. Three weeks later, Mark has a massive panic attack at work and ends up in the ER.

How did this happen? Let’s follow the chain of information.

A group of researchers tested whether lavender scent reduced heart rates in mice navigating a maze. The mice seemed 12% calmer. The scientists published a cautious paper saying, “Evidence suggests lavender extracts may have mild anxiolytic (anti-anxiety) properties in rodents.”

Then, the university’s PR department needed a punchy press release to justify their funding. They wrote: “New Research Shows Lavender Could Be Key to Fighting Anxiety.”

Then, a health journalist on a tight deadline skimmed the press release and published an article titled: “Can Lavender Replace Your Anxiety Meds?”

Finally, the influencer read the headline, ignored the article, and made a TikTok saying lavender cures anxiety.

The condition (anxiety) met a mechanism (information degradation) that led to an exposure (bad advice) and resulted in a severe health consequence (a panic attack). Mark outsourced his thinking to a middleman, and he paid the price.

The Information Food Chain

To protect your mind, you need to understand the difference between primary and secondary sources.

Primary literature is the raw data. It is the scientists writing down exactly what they did, who they did it to, and what happened.

Secondary literature is the media. It’s the journalist, the blogger, or the influencer who takes the scientists’ complicated, boring summary and translates it into something that gets clicks.

Nuance does not get clicks. Nuance doesn’t sell supplements.

When you rely on secondary sources, you are eating pre-chewed food. All the nutritional value—the context, the limitations, the exact dosages—has been sucked out.

If you want to understand mental health, you have to look at the evidence. And the evidence shows that media routinely distorts scientific findings through a trick called “Relative vs. Absolute Risk.”

Let’s translate this into money, because it’s easier to understand. Imagine you make $1 a year. Your boss walks in and says, “Good news, I’m giving you a 100% raise!” You are thrilled. Your income just doubled. But your absolute income is now $2. You are still broke.

The media does this with health data constantly. A study might find that eating a specific synthetic chemical increases your baseline risk of a rare brain disease from 1 in a million to 2 in a million.

The absolute risk is practically zero (0.0001% to 0.0002%).

But the relative risk increased by 100%.

So the headline screams: “Common Additive Doubles Your Risk of Brain Disease!”

If you only read the headline, you live in constant fear. If you read the primary source, you see the raw numbers, realize it’s a 2-in-a-million chance, and go about your day.

The Counterargument

Now, here is where most people push back.

“I’m not a scientist. I don’t know what a p-value is. I don’t know what a double-blind, placebo-controlled randomized trial is. The language is too dense. That’s why we have experts—to summarize it for us.”

The claim sounds plausible, but here’s where it breaks down.

You don’t need to be a mechanic to know if your car is on fire. And you don’t need to understand complex multivariate regressions to read a scientific paper. If a 15-year-old can ask basic logical questions, they can read primary literature.

When you open a research paper, you are just looking for the anatomy of the study. It’s broken into a few standard parts:

  • The Abstract: The movie trailer. A 250-word summary of the whole thing.
  • The Introduction: Why they did the study.
  • The Methods: The recipe. (This is where the good stuff is usually hidden).
  • The Results: The raw score.
  • The Discussion: The scientists guessing what the score actually means in the real world.

You don’t have to read the complex math in the Results section. You just need to read the Methods and ask one simple question: Compared with what?

If a study says a new therapy cures depression, you look at the Methods.

Who was in the study? Was it 10,000 humans over five years, or 8 college freshmen over a weekend?

Was there a control group? Did they compare the therapy to a sugar pill, to existing medication, or to nothing at all?

If there is no “compared with what,” the study is practically useless for your everyday life.

What This Means For You

This means you have the power to audit your own beliefs. You don’t have to be a victim of algorithmic panic anymore.

The next time someone tells you that a specific diet cures ADHD, or that a certain habit shrinks your brain, you don’t argue with them. You just ask: “Can you link the primary paper?”

If they can’t, you ignore them.

If they can, you open it up. You skip the jargon. You look at who they studied, what they did, and what the actual numbers were. You pull the facts straight from the source, before a marketer gets their hands on it to spin it into a product.

Limitations

Let’s be incredibly clear about the boundaries of this. Evidence doesn’t establish absolute truth just because it’s in a PDF.

Primary literature is not a sacred text. One study is just one single data point. Scientists are humans; they have biases, they make statistical errors, and they are pressured to publish positive results because boring results don’t get funding. (This is called publication bias, and it is a massive problem in mental health research).

Just because you read one primary paper doesn’t mean you now know the definitive truth of the universe. We separate what evidence shows (repeated, high-quality, large-scale results) from what evidence suggests (one or two small, interesting studies).

But reading the primary source gets you closer to the truth than the TikTok summary ever will.

The Takeaway

Stop outsourcing your brain to people whose paycheck depends on your panic.

The person who controls your information controls your decisions; go to the source and fire the middleman.

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How Chronic Stress Changes the Brain

Most people think stress is a software problem.

You think it’s a bad mood, a mindset issue, or a psychological weakness. You assume that if you just read enough stoic philosophy, took a deep breath, or changed your perspective, the stress would evaporate.

But stress isn’t just a software problem. It is a hardware problem.

When you stay stressed for too long, you aren’t just having a prolonged negative emotion. You are literally bathing your organs in a cocktail of chemicals that degrade the physical structure of your brain and heart.

Which brings us to the one question you need to answer if you want to survive the modern world: How does a demanding boss, a mountain of debt, or a toxic environment actually reshape the meat inside your skull—and biologically, how do you stop it?

If you don’t understand how this works, you will try to fix a chemical fire with positive thinking, and you will lose.

Let me tell you about a guy named John. John works a high-pressure corporate job. For two years, he has been grinding under a manager who constantly moves the goalposts. John isn’t just tired; he feels completely flat. He can’t focus, he can’t remember simple details, and he has slipped into a quiet, heavy depression.

John thinks his character is failing. He thinks he just lacks willpower.

Let’s look under the hood and follow the biological chain of what is actually happening to John.

The condition (uncontrollable occupational stress) triggers a mechanism (hyperactivation of the immune system and hormonal axes). This leads to a chemical exposure (neurotoxic molecules crossing into his brain). This results in a physical health consequence (his brain cells literally shrink, causing clinical depression).

John isn’t weak. His brain is actively suffering from structural atrophy.

The Science of Brain Damage

To understand this, we have to look at a 2015 paper published in Future Science OA by Dr. Agnese Mariotti, which breaks down the exact molecular communication between the brain and the body during chronic stress.

When you encounter a threat—say, a tiger—your brain sounds an alarm. It activates the Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenal (HPA) axis. Your body floods with adrenaline and glucocorticoids (like cortisol). Your heart rate spikes. Your immune system revs up, preparing to fight an infection in case the tiger bites you.

This is acute stress. It is a brilliant, evolutionary superpower designed to keep you alive for ten minutes.

But what happens when the “tiger” is your mortgage, and it chases you 24 hours a day for three years?

The alarm never shuts off. The system breaks. When the stress is chronic, your body becomes resistant to the hormones trying to turn the alarm down. Your immune system stays locked in an “on” position, creating a state of chronic, low-grade inflammation.

Your body thinks it is constantly fighting a severe infection. This triggers something called “sickness behavior”—a biological drive to socially withdraw, sleep, and conserve energy. Over time, this sickness behavior degrades into clinical depression.

But it gets more mechanical than that. Let’s trace the molecule to the brain, and then to the behavior.

When your immune system is chronically inflamed by stress, it starts stealing a molecule called tryptophan. Normally, your brain uses tryptophan to build serotonin (the neurotransmitter that makes you feel stable and happy). But under chronic stress, your inflamed body reroutes that tryptophan and dumps it into something called the Kynurenine pathway.

Instead of making serotonin, your body turns tryptophan into a molecule called Kynurenine (Kyn).

Kynurenine travels through your blood, crosses the blood-brain barrier, and enters your brain. Once inside, it converts into highly toxic molecules (like quinolinic acid).

These toxins inhibit protein synthesis in your neurons. They literally stop your brain from building connections. The dendrites (the branches of your brain cells) in your Prefrontal Cortex—the area responsible for focus, decision-making, and emotional regulation—shrivel up.

Your brain physically loses volume. You get depressed.

The Evidence: Compared With What?

How do we know this isn’t just an educated guess? Because scientists have measured it, both in the brain and in the blood.

In Mariotti’s review, she highlights a landmark study by Heidt and colleagues. They wanted to see exactly what stress does to the cardiovascular system. They took mice prone to atherosclerosis (plaque buildup in the arteries) and split them into two groups.

Group A lived normally. Group B was subjected to chronic stress.

Compared with the unstressed mice, the stressed mice pumped out massive amounts of noradrenaline, which went straight into their bone marrow. The bone marrow responded by overproducing inflammatory white blood cells. These cells flooded the bloodstream, packed into the plaques in the arteries, and made the plaques highly fragile and prone to rupturing (which causes heart attacks).

But does this happen in humans? Evidence suggests it does. The researchers looked at medical residents (doctors) working in highly stressful hospital wards. Compared with when they were on vacation, these doctors had significantly higher levels of those exact same circulating inflammatory leukocytes while on the job.

Stress didn’t just make them feel bad; it changed the composition of their blood.

The Counterargument

Here is what a skeptic will say:

“If stress is purely a physiological response, then therapy, mindset shifts, and cognitive behavioral tools are useless. We are just victims of our chemistry. The only way out is a pharmaceutical pill.”

The claim sounds plausible, but here’s where it breaks down.

Perception dictates the chemical release. The Mariotti paper explicitly states that the stress response depends on an individual’s perception of “predictability and controllability.” If you believe you can control a stressor, the toxic HPA-axis cascade shuts off much faster. Therapy and mindset don’t cure the physical brain damage, but they stop the brain from hitting the chemical panic button in the first place.

But what if you are already in the hole? What if your blood is already full of Kynurenine?

This is where the science gets incredibly practical.

What It Means: The Muscle-Brain Filter

If chronic stress creates a toxin in your blood that travels to your brain, how do you intercept it?

You use your muscles.

Mariotti highlights a fascinating study by Agudelo and colleagues regarding physical exercise. When you engage in protracted skeletal muscle contraction (intense exercise), your muscles produce an enzyme called KAT.

KAT acts like a chemical bouncer. It grabs the Kynurenine in your bloodstream and converts it into a different acid (kynurenic acid) before it can reach your brain. And here is the magic trick: kynurenic acid cannot cross the blood-brain barrier.

By lifting weights or running, your muscles literally act as a filtration system. They neutralize the stress-induced neurotoxins in your blood and flush them out of your body before they can shrink your prefrontal cortex.

When researchers looked at mice subjected to chronic stress, the ones with enhanced muscle pathways prevented the neuroinflammation and didn’t exhibit depressive behaviors, compared with the stressed mice that didn’t have the pathway activated.

Exercise isn’t just for building bigger biceps or burning calories. It is a biological shield for your brain.

Limitations

Let’s be very clear about what the data does not say.

Evidence shows the exact pathways of how exercise clears these toxins in mice, and evidence suggests the same biological markers are triggered in humans who exercise. But we do not know if this is the only pathway, or even the primary one. Human depression is infinitely more complex than a rodent maze.

Furthermore, you cannot always out-exercise a truly toxic environment. If you work 80 hours a week for an abusive boss, running on a treadmill for 30 minutes a day will not make you immune to the biological weathering of that lifestyle. The paper concludes by stating that preventing occupational illness requires structural changes to the environment—fair contracts, sane hours, and boundaries.

Biology can buffer stress, but it cannot excuse abuse.

The Takeaway

You cannot out-think a chemical response, and you cannot meditate away physical neurotoxins.

Your skeletal muscles act as a liver for your brain; use them to filter out the chemical trash that chronic stress leaves behind.

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Discerning the Love of God

Interesting title, ain’t it? Well, today I would like to shed light on why many of us are walking in the cities, in the fields, on the streets, with dissatisfaction in our hearts. There are far too many who can relate to the expression of turmoil and emotional pain. And before some of you shut this website off, calling me a legalist when I say that we should be discerning the love of God, I just want to let you know there is a mystery within these words. For those who don’t know of this prince let me introduce the mystery of this great prince’s love for you.

Does God Hate Sinners of Love Them?

I saw a recent clip that has gone viral. I don’t want to get specific, but it’s from the Reformed Christian movement and basically, they talk about the misunderstandings in the Church. These preachers remind us of the common saying, “God loves the sinner but hates the sin.”

They then explain that this saying is found nowhere in the Bible. And they go further to mention not only that this is not found in the Bible but that it is a completely false understanding of God.

Why… they say that God hates the sinner and the sin. So, not only does He hate sin, He hates the sinner. They further support their points with scriptures which are found in the Bible such as the following.

Psalm 5:4-6 (World English Bible)
4 For You are not a God who takes pleasure in wickedness,
Nor shall evil dwell with You.
5 The boastful shall not stand in Your sight;
You hate all workers of iniquity.
6 You shall destroy those who speak falsehood;
The Lord abhors the bloodthirsty and deceitful man.

What’s implied from this point onwards is that only born-again, believing Christians are loved by God. Now, I completely understand their point but I can discern that the full beauty of the Gospel was not shown. This is not where they should have stopped in their explanation because there’s so much more.

Not only do they harp on this idea as if it’s a huge revelation. And these clips fail not in garnering views for one main reason. People don’t understand how nondiscriminatory the love of God is.

Remember Jacob and Esau?

So, let’s actually look not only at what the scriptures say but at what they mean. Let’s bring back that frequently quotes passage of scripture in support of God’s hatred of sinners.

But wait a second, before anything, let’s include a bit more context…

Psalm 5:4-6 (New King James Version)
4 For You are not a God who takes pleasure in wickedness,
Nor shall evil dwell with You.
5 The boastful shall not stand in Your sight;
You hate all workers of iniquity.
6 You shall destroy those who speak falsehood;
The Lord abhors the bloodthirsty and deceitful man.
7 But as for me, I will come into Your house in the multitude of Your mercy;
In fear of You I will worship toward Your holy temple.
8 Lead me, O Lord, in Your righteousness because of my enemies;
Make Your way straight before my face.

When King David was being inspired by the Holy Spirit, he prayed and wrote what is there in Psalm 5. And as you read verse 7 and 8, you realize that King David makes a distinction between the sinners who God cannot stand, and sinners like him.

Note here that he is not saying that he is perfect. On the contrary, He is saying that when He goes to God’s house, He recieves a multitude of mercy. So, what’s really being said here is not that God hates sinners, rather, it’s saying that there are sinners who refuse to know God and there are sinners who decide to go to God.

We see this same princple again with the following Bible verse

Romans 9:13 (New King James Version)
13 As it is written, “Jacob I have loved, but Esau I have hated.”

Does Romans 9:13 say that God hate Esau because he’s a sinner? Yes. But does that then mean Jacob’s a goody two shoes? Nope.

Discerning the Love of God

Jacob was not righteous when considered by his works according to the Ten Commandments (even though it would come later). Same goes for David. But, the difference between Esau and Jacob or the difference between the wicked people David talks about and David, is the heart.

The heart of Jacob was willing to have a relationship with God. The heart of David was after God. Esau rejected God all the time, rejected His inheritance for a soup, rejected God’s plan for his marriage, etc…

And so, God who by nature hates sin, will hate those who love sin. And there are certain people who have hardened their hearts so much so that nothing can ever convince them to turn to God. Therefore, if a person commits to rejecting the love of God without any room for change, then God’s anger will remain upon that sinner.

That doesn’t mean God doesn’t love them, but it means God hates them for not turning away from what they’re doing, and He is angry with their stubbornness. This is just like how an earthly father will be angry at his son if he grows up to betray his country and becomes an international criminal. But, deep inside, the father still has a remnant of love for the son and as soon as that son changes his ways, the father’s love will appear.

Ezekiel 33:11 (New King James Version)
11 Say to them: ‘As I live,’ says the Lord God, ‘I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn, turn from your evil ways! For why should you die, O house of Israel?’

Therefore, if you feel that bad because you think God is angry at you, turn to Jesus, accept His free gift of salvation. He paid the price for your sins on the cross so now you can enter into a relationship with God.

And when you believe in Jesus, you receive His righteousness so that He will never be angry at you again as He is with a sinner. Any sinner can become righteous if they come to Jesus. So, to conclude, God loves everyone. But, everyone has to make the choice if they want to reconcile their relationship with God or remain strangers.

Romans 5:8 (New King James Version)
8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

To summarize, God ultimately loves the sinner but He hates the sin. God may be angry at a sinner for their actions similar to how a parent may be disappointed with their child. But, at the end of the day, He shows grace and mercy to those who trust Him.

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Why Should You Accept Jesus Christ as Lord & Saviour

The world is a full of suffering and misery. At the same time, it’s full of bliss and pleasure. Whichever world you’re in, I want you to displace your mind from that arena and to instead focus on what matters. In this post, I want to offer you three reasons why you should accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour. Christianity is perfect for your mental health and I intend to convince whoever is reading of accepting Jesus Christ.

You Can’t Find Anyone like Lord Jesus

I dare you to find a single individual as influential as Lord Jesus. But here’s what’s even harder to find….

I dare you to find a person who can make the claims Lord Jesus made and then back up those claims with actions even thousands of years after the initial event.

Here are three examples of claims Lord Jesus made.

Matthew 11:28-30 World English Bible (WEB)
 “Come to me, all you who labor and are heavily burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart; and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

John 8:36 World English Bible (WEB)
If therefore the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed.

John 10:10 World English Bible (WEB)
The thief only comes to steal, kill, and destroy. I came that they may have life, and may have it abundantly.

Here’s the thing, there are countless testimonies all talking about how Christ transformed their lives. Search up “Christian” and “testimony,” you will find countless people talking about how Lord Jesus transformed their lives most of the time, miraculously. This is because He does exist and He is still loving on people today and wants them to trust Him.

But let’s first take a step back because you might be a bit confused. Let me listen to your questions…

“Wait, what’s to say there is a god? For all I know, we’re lonely sentient creatures making gods to soothe our cravings for comfort?“

I will grant you the fact that we as social creatures do want someone to exist beyond our grasp. We do want a higher power, we don’t want to be alone.

That’s why Buddhists in Sri Lanka tend to supplement their Buddhism with Hinduism (which has a plethora of so called “deities”) even though Siddhartha clearly told his followers to not even think about any higher power.

Accept Jesus

But just because we have the desire for a higher power, doesn’t invalidate the possibility that there is a higher power. Just because we want something, doesn’t mean it’s fantasy. What if we were designed to want that?

“Yeah, but, say there is a god, what makes Christianity any different from other religious leaders who made religious claims?”

Ah here’s the thing, unlike other religions, Christianity makes claims and then provides evidence. Islam doesn’t guarantee healing to its followers nor does Hinduism. But the God of the Bible does guarantee healing if you have faith.

My God is not silent. He refuses to be silent and He makes His mind clear all the time. Sure, he doesn’t speak audibly all the time, but I know for a fact that He is speaking. He is intervening in human affairs and I’m a child of His so I have nothing to fear.

Do you want some evidence that the God of the Bible speaks?

Go to your room, lock the door, and get on your knees. Then clasp your hands together and pray audibly. Ask if there is truly a god, and if that God is the God of the Bible, Lord Jesus Christ, then reveal Himself to you.

I have so much confidence that He will answer your prayer because He is just waiting for you to take that one step of faith in the pursuit of truth. Once you pray this, He will reveal Himself to you in the way you expect least.

No Other God Loves You Like Christ Loves you.

I want you to accept Jesus Christ not only because He is true but because He is interactive, intimate, animated. He is a real being with real desires.

Now, I’ve the smartest man say the dumbest thing saying that he believes the god of spinoza and that if there is a god, he wants nothing to do with humans since God transcends humans on every level.

That’s silly. Imagine a father telling his 6 month old baby girl he doesn’t want to interact or care for her because she’s dumb and he’s beyond her mental capacity.

Remember the Bible calls God our Heavenly Father and although He does transcend our mental awareness, He also is in love with His children and wants everyone to trust Him as their Heavenly Father.

Isaiah 55:8-9 World English Bible (WEB )
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
    neither are your ways my ways,”
declares the Lord.
 “As the heavens are higher than the earth,
    so are my ways higher than your ways
    and my thoughts than your thoughts.

And yet at the same time, the Bible also tells us…

Romans 5:8
 But God commends his own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

So at the end of the day, Christ tells us He loves us even though we’re far from perfect. Accept Jesus Christ as your Lord, it’s the best thing you could do.

But if you’re still skeptical, my advice is to pray to the God of the Bible and ask Him to reveal Himself as Lord Jesus Christ if He’s real. I don’t know how He’ll do it, but He will, you just need to be patient.

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The Fear of the Lord is the Beginning of Wisdom

Do you take God seriously? I’ve heard many people mention God. They sometimes talk about Him as if He’s okay with everything under the sun. Still others say there’s no hope for y’all because He’s gonna condemn you for your sins. And yet sometimes, I hear people who say He’s just one of many gods and that you can become a god too. After hearing all this garbage, I realized that people don’t take God’s name as seriously as they claim to. They’re not even willing to stand at the beginning of wisdom. If they did, they’d have kept their mouth shut about what they clearly know nothing about. So, this all comes to one bold yet important question we ought to ask ourselves, myself included, “Do I take God seriously?”

“I’ve Got More Time”

Newsflash! Time ain’t on your side 99% of the time (pun intended).

And yet, we all seem to think we can take time for granted and whichever God we choose is a choice we can make tomorrow. But what if it isn’t? Are you really capable of taking such a tremendous risk?

Arrogance…

Most of us haven’t been humbled. We’re so relaxed about everything, we just go with the flow and throw caution to the wind. It’s quite silly when you think about it.

And unfortunately, this mentality leads to people giving up on pursuing God. While for others, this mentality leads them to pursue any god but the God of the Bible.

For some reason, the character of the God of the Bible seems unattractive to some people. He seems too harsh, too old, too restrictive, too unreasonable, too unapproachable.

Exodus 34:14 World English Bible (WEB)
14 for you shall worship no other god; for Yahweh, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.

Well if that’s what you think of God, may I dare to say something a bit harsh? Nevertheless, I’ll say it for your sake.

Could it just be that God seems restrictive, jealous, unreasonable, and all these generally considered negative traits because He sees things for what they really are hence why He reacts so harshly? And maybe… you’re the one who really needs God to thump your head because you just can’t see what He sees?

I mean if He is the one who made you in your mother’s womb, wouldn’t He truly feel jealous when He sees you worshipping another so-called god? I’d tell you what I’d feel in His position. Absolute rage!

Yet, too many of us spend our lives serving other gods, some dedicate themselves to New Age ideas, others become slaves of alcohol, and others obey their lustful desires.

The Fear of the Lord is the Beginning of Wisdom

And that brings me to my main point, whether you’re Christian or not, you’ve got to take God seriously. And if you’re not Christian, take the time to reconsider your position because there’s only one way to Heaven and that’s through accepting Jesus Christ as your Lord and Saviour.

Proverbs 9:10 World English Bible (WEB)
10 The fear of Yahweh is the beginning of wisdom.
    The knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.

The beginning of wisdom starts when you decide to fear the Lord. And fearing the Lord doesn’t mean you’re scared of him like you were of the boogeyman. It means you don’t take Him too lightly, and you honour Him in the highest regard.

Now, if you’re no a Christian, here’s what I mean by taking God seriously. Here’s your next step.

Just say a little prayer where you ask Jesus Christ to be your Lord and Saviour. Why should you? It’s because you in and of your own ability cannot pay the price for your sins. When you stand before God one day as we all must at some point, you’ll need someone to pay the price for your sins whatever they may be.

Sure you might have been a good person, but a good person still must pay the price for their sins, that’s the harsh reality of our existence.

Nothing we do is granted to us, it’s all just accumulated debt. And at some point, you’ve got to pay the moral debt you owe a sinless perfect God of Justice.

Now too bad for God, He’s too kind, He’s too loving, He’s too graceful. He couldn’t bear to let your sorry posterior carry the weight of your hell. He’s given you a chance to change your fate.

Over two thousand years ago, He wrapped Himself in human flesh and died on the cross for your sins. So instead of you suffering hell after Earth, He suffered your hell on Earth as He died on the cross. I talk more about it and righteousness here.

Reject Folly! Follow Wisdom! Who is Wisdom?

Now for the born-again Christian, I carry another message. Hold strong to the convictions we read in the Bible. I talk about it here also, but, this is the point.

The point is to dedicate your life to Christ Jesus as your Lord. He is not only your Saviour, He is also your Lord.

He is the main motivator for your existence. Like come on! He alone died on the cross for your sake, He suffered hell on your behalf, the least you could do is to treat Him rightfully as King He is.

Philippians 2:9-11 World English Bible (WEB)
9 Therefore God also highly exalted him, and gave to him the name which is above every name, 10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, those on earth, and those under the earth, 11 and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Don’t just wait til you’re in Heaven to bow your knees before God, why not do it now?

Follow Wisdom, reject Folly. If there are temptations you face, overcome it through your Saviour, Christ Jesus because He is your Lord also.

You know, in the Bible, the Spirit of Wisdom is represented as a woman, she calls to the foolish that they may turn away from their foolishness and follow the Lord.

Proverbs 8:1-4 World English Bible (WEB)
1 Doesn’t wisdom cry out?
Doesn’t understanding raise her voice?
2 On the top of high places by the way,
where the paths meet, she stands.
3 Beside the gates, at the entry of the city,
at the entry doors, she cries aloud:
4 “I call to you men!
I send my voice to the sons of mankind.

And yet, the way we ought to start our journey on the path of the wise is by making sure to fear the Lord. So, worship the Lord, pray to Him, and read His Word. Live by His Words and follow His Spirit wherever He leads. Then, God will also grant your the Spirit of Wisdom as you start at the beginning of wisdom.

Proverbs 28:14 Young’s Literal Translation (YLT)
14 O the happiness of a man fearing continually, And whoso is hardening his heart falleth into evil.

By Andre Dillon Wijesekera

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God Who Knew You From Before the Foundation of the Earth

This whole post finds its foundation on one Bible verse. This Bible verse is Ephesians 1:4. It very much reveals the heart of Lord Jesus Christ, the God who knew you from before Earth’s foundation. Unfortunately, most people today fail to understand this as seen by current reactions to new court rulings in America. And what’s hilarious is that I’m not talking about reactions in America, I’m talking about reactions in Canada. Nevertheless, let’s dissect what it really means in Ephesians 1:4.

Unwanted

“An unplanned child is an unwanted child” is a lie that soaks the mindsets of more than half the population today. And if you want my opinion regarding the legitimacy of that statement, it’s a resounding NOOOO!

John 8:44 (World English Bible)
44 You are of your father, the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and doesn’t stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks on his own; for he is a liar, and the father of lies.

Very clearly, Lord Jesus spoke to the people of His day and age regarding their hesitation to align with the Truth. He pointed out that they were not children of God but were instead children of the devil.

A child resembles their father and in the same way, many people today resemble in nature their spiritual father, the devil. That’s why our culture is ripe with lies killing people from the inside out. But unlike Christ, the devil does not love his children as is more than obvious when observing the state of our world.

But Lord Jesus loves this world even if the majority hates Him to the core. Yes, He is not the father of those who do not believe in Him. However, He calls for them to be His children. He is more than willing to adopt people so as long as they surrender their lives to Him. They only need to accept Jesus Christ as their Lord and Saviour.

The God Who Knew You Very Much Loves You

And this ties into my initial point. Christ loves everyone so that even if a pregnancy is unplanned, that unborn child is dearly beloved by God. There is truly no one who is unwanted in God’s sight. That is why Apostle Paul was inspired by Holy Spirit to write the following verse.

Ephesians 1:4 (King James Version)
4 According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love:

To those who are willing to accept Christ as their Lord and Saviour, your destiny was already determined. God decided that He would select you, the Church to be His and that He would pay the wages.

Our sin earned us death. That’s why Christ suffered the death we deserved at the cross. He did it because He loves us! He truly is the God who knew you even before your birth. Your value as a human being predates your parents’ decisions, it lies in the heart of God.

Romans 5:8 (World English Bible)
8 But God commends his own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

The Scales Have Fallen!

Yet, our naturalistic and now-focused mentality as a generation has confused us. The god of this world aka “satan” has blocked the world from seeing the truth and freedom found in Christ.

2 Corinthians 4:4 (World English Bible)
4 in whom the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving, that the light of the Good News of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should not dawn on them.

It breaks my heart when Christians have to be careful with their words so much so that they cannot speak the truth of God’s love. And I’m not talking of a wishy-washy love with no substance.

I’m talking of the love of God, the love that never ends, the love that stands in unison with the truth, upheld by godly conviction. This love shatters lies and yet its most rudimentary principles are so rejected by the world that we fail to agree on life’s sanctity.

To those who are reading this post and have not accepted Christ, please for your sake, pray to the God of Heaven and ask Him if He really is Lord Jesus Christ. Your prayer won’t be left unanswered. Behold the God of the Bible and when you see Christ in the New Testament, your Spirit will be revived.

All of a sudden, your spiritual eyes will see clearly, similar to what Saul experienced when He came to Christ.

Acts 9:18
18 Immediately something like scales fell from his eyes, and he received his sight. He arose and was baptized.

There is no greater love that can be found aside from the love of God revealed in the Holy Bible. And there, Christ stands with open arms yearning for you to realize your value in His eyes and to not only know He is the God who knew you but the God who knows you.

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The God Betrayed Many Times Over

When it comes to betrayal and Bible, the first person who generally comes to mind is Judas Iscariot. He’s the one who betrayed Lord Jesus in exchange for money. But God did not have to come to Earth as a human being in order to be betrayed. He’s actually been betrayed many times throughout the Bible. Now, I’ve talked about how God conquered betrayal in this linked post, but, consider this post a sequel which will focus more on another aspect of betrayal.

A Wicked People

The people of Israel shown in the book of Exodus and the way they behave are generally thought to represent human nature. And the scary thing about human nature is that the human nature depicted in Exodus is generally not positive.

One observation that’s enough to summarize the fabric of people in Exodus is the following verse.

Jeremiah 17:9 (King James Version)
9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?

The interesting thing noted in the above verse is not that the human heart is wicked. No, no, no… Rather, it’s the idea that the heart is desperately wicked. What this means is that the human heart by nature is doomed to be wicked, it has no choice but to be evil.

And so, that is why after God brought Egypt to its knees in order to rescue Israel from its slavery, they started participating in idol worship.

Exodus 32:1 (King James Version)
And when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down out of the mount, the people gathered themselves together unto Aaron, and said unto him, Up, make us gods, which shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we wot not what is become of him.

Betrayed Many Times

God was so angered with Israel that He told Moses that He should start over again by destroying them.

Exodus 32:9-11 (World English Bible)
9 Yahweh said to Moses, “I have seen these people, and behold, they are a stiff-necked people. 
10 Now therefore leave me alone, that my wrath may burn hot against them, and that I may consume them; and I will make of you a great nation.”
11 Moses begged Yahweh his God, and said, “Yahweh, why does your wrath burn hot against your people, that you have brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? 

God used this opportunity to express His anger against Israel to the point of destroying them but He knew Moses would plea for Israel. Thus, even though God said He would destroy Israel, He also knew Moses would ask Him to not destroy Israel. This means that He was only expressing His rage at Israel’s betrayal.

Exodus 32:12-13 (World English Bible)
12 Why should the Egyptians talk, saying, ‘He brought them out for evil, to kill them in the mountains, and to consume them from the surface of the earth?’ Turn from your fierce wrath, and turn away from this evil against your people. 
13 Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, to whom you swore by your own self, and said to them, ‘I will multiply your offspring as the stars of the sky, and all this land that I have spoken of I will give to your offspring, and they shall inherit it forever.’”
14 So Yahweh turned away from the evil which he said he would do to his people.

Redeeming Love

However, God was betrayed many times and this was not going to be the last. Israel kept on complaining about God and were never truly appreciative of what He did for them.

Now, up until this point, it’s often misunderstood that God is just angered by Israel’s betrayal. Although true, this is not the only aspect of betrayal experienced by God. He also seems to be hurt by Israel’s betrayal.

Let it be clear, however, that whenever I say God was “hurt” by Israel’s betrayal, it means that He was disappointed in the love reciprocated towards Him despite His care for Israel. This perspective is made clear by the book of Hosea.

In the Book of Hosea, God tells Prophet Hosea to marry a prostitute in order to prophetically depict God’s relationship with Israel. And this is where God really shows Israel the emotional side of how their betrayal has affected Him.

Hosea 1:2-3 (World English Bible)
2 When Yahweh spoke at first by Hosea, Yahweh said to Hosea, “Go, take for yourself a wife of prostitution and children of unfaithfulness; for the land commits great adultery, forsaking Yahweh.” 3 So he went and took Gomer the daughter of Diblaim; and she conceived, and bore him a son.

Redeeming Love Continued

Furthermore, Gomer betrays Hosea and has affairs with other men. But, see the comparison God makes between Gomer and Israel in the following passage.

Hosea 3:1-3 (World English Bible)
Yahweh said to me, “Go again, love a woman loved by another, and an adulteress, even as Yahweh loves the children of Israel, though they turn to other gods, and love cakes of raisins.” 2 So I bought her for myself for fifteen pieces of silver and a homer and a half of barley. 3 I said to her, “You shall stay with me many days. You shall not play the prostitute, and you shall not be with any other man. I will also be so toward you.”

This passage shows God is hurt by idol worship as a husband is hurt by adultery. And even then, God still loves those who betray Him as He tells Hosea to bring Gomer back.

Now, as of the time this post is being published, a movie has been released called Redeeming Love. It claims to be a retelling of Hosea, but, according to the summary I read, it can’t be. This is because the movie is about a helpless girl who is forced to sell her body.

But, that is not what the book of Hosea is about, it’s about a man who loves His wife despite her willingly betraying him. It’s about God loving a people who willingly betray Him by worshipping other false gods.

Conclusion

Now, you may have been betrayed many times by other people. But you must know that God has been betrayed many times more than you. Even today, God blesses people and they forget Him once they’ve received His blessings.

Yet, the real question is if you have betrayed God? I know I have. I’ve done terrible deeds which prove the wickedness of the human heart. I didn’t love Him first, but He loved me first.

1 John 4:10 (World English Bible)
10 In this is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son as the atoning sacrifice for our sins.

And yet, He forgave me and He is always there for me even when I’m at fault. Moreover, I reciprocate His love as I love Him for how good He has been to me. Therefore, if you’ve betrayed God whether it be by idolizing money or other gods, the one true God, Lord Jesus Christ awaits your return to His loving embrace.