What can you do?

Ever had anybody ask you about what you can do?

Say you were meeting somebody new for the first time and they wanted to get to know you better. They might ask 'What can you do?' and you might answer with 'I can play an instrument!' or 'I'm really good at sport!'. 

However, there are two ways of asking this question.

The other way this question might be asked is in a sarcastic way. Like the person asking you the question thinks that your a nobody and that you can't do anything.

'What can you do?'

You, or someone you know might have already been asked this question in the negative way in the past. I know I have and it does actually make you feel like you can't do anything. Which isn't the case for anybody.

So, lets look at what the Bible has to say about people who are completely hopeless and who some people might look at and ask them 'What can you do?'.

In my opinion, the people in the Bible who are the best example for this are the disciples.

The disciples are Jesus' very close friends. Chosen specially by Jesus to stay with and travel with him almost all if the time. However the disciples aren't what you'd call particularly 'skilled' or 'talented' people. 

Some of the disciples were fishermen and if we take a look at the first few verses of John 21 (here) we see that the disciples are rubbish fishermen. And if we read Luke 24 verses 13-18 (here) we see that Jesus' special people, the people he kept close to him 24/7 the people who were mourning Jesus' death, didn't recognise Jesus.

How are Jesus' disciples looking to you now? Do they look like the sort of people who might get asked the question 'What can you do?'. But, with Jesus the disciples also did countless acts of awesome works that include feeding 5,000 people with just 5 loves and 3 fish and even healing people. 

How did the unskilled, uneducated disciples do this? 

With God.

This is why I think it was important to Jesus that his disciples weren't incredibly clever or incredibly talented. They were just like you and me. And if they can do amazing works for God then that means so can we. 

Joshua 1 verse 9 says 'Remember that I have commanded you to be determined and confident! Do not be afraid or discouraged, for I, the Lord your God, am with you wherever you go.' 

Remember not to let what other people think of you become the way you think of yourself.

If you have any questions or queries feel free to email us at christianunion.blog@gmail.com.

Love

The Bible was originally written in Greek. Where as we have only one word for love with only one definition the Greeks have five separate words for love with five separate meanings.

The first is Eros. Eros according to Dictionary.com means a physical love or a sexual desire. This type of love would be used in the context of boyfriend/girlfriend, marriage context.

Next is Philia. Philia is the kind of love associated with friendships and the relationships we have with our friends. This type of love would be used in the context of friendships and people who are in our day-to-day lives and even people we pass on the street.

The next word is Agape. Agape is used in Greek as an official 'I love you' statement instead of the physical love that we see in Eros.

The last word for love that I am going to use is Storage. Storage love would be used in the context of affection between say, a mother and son. This word is almost exclusively used as a descriptor of relationships between family.

Now, compared to that us English speakers only have one word for love.

Love. According to Dictionary.com Love is 'A profoundly tender, passionate affection for another person.

So it's important that in the Bible when the word love is used to think about the context of the word and what type of Greek 'love' it might be referring to.

With this in mind when we read verses in our Bibles like Romans 13:8 where it says 'Whoever loves others has fulfilled the law' God doesn't mean to physically love everyone but to care for people regardless of who they are. 

Probably the most well known verse in the bible is found in John 3:16 and it says 'For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son, that whoever believes in him will not perish but have eternal live.' I don't read Greek so I don't know what type of love was used in this verse, but it could have been either Philla, Agape or Storage love.
This verse is used lots all around the world. But what does it mean? Well it's pretty simple. God sent Jesus to live on Earth and when Jesus was on the Earth he died on the cross. Something I think you all know very well. The reason Jesus died was so that all of our sins and all the things we do wrong can be forgotten about in the eyes of God. Also the cross acts as a 'bridge' to heaven as the verse says 'whoever believes in him will have eternal live'. This means that as long as we believe in God, become a Christian and read our Bibles we will not perish, but have eternal life in Heaven.
This verse doesn't just apply to the 'good' people either. In fact the verse even starts off with 'Whoever'. meaning anybody can have an eternal life in Heaven with God.

If you have any questions or queries email us at
christianunion.blog@gmail.com

:)