The wordless book is a tool used in evangelism to communicate to those without words, it used colors. There are various versions but the basics are that it starts with black, red, white an usually has a yellow. Black being sin, red is blood of Jesus, white is us being cleansed from sin, and gold is some representation of heaven. So use other colors like green to be grow, or to go and tell ect. But the basics are the same.

And I don’t want to knock those that use it. If you feel called by God to use it, He can do anything despite or in spite of what we use, we just need to be willing and obedient. But I don’t think this is the only way to salvation and can rob them of much of the richness of God and Jesus.

As this book introduces the number one problem in this world is sin. Some introduce the goal of this life to go to heaven, which I do think is potentially even more problematic. It can cause people to desire the healing, more than the healer. If our goal in life is to get to heaven, all we need is to follow the Biblical formula to Jesus’ blood, we are forgiven and given access. Or worse, avoiding hell is the motivation. I don’t think avoiding discomfort of hell, or yearning for the comforts of heaven is what God intended for us when Jesus said “I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.” John 10:10.

But also is sin the the only problem preventing us from avoiding hell or going to heaven, is it just an obstacle that needs over come. Some may try to do a bunch of good deeds to cover that sin, and some might know that no amount of good deeds are enough but only faith in the atoning blood of Jesus is enough.

But as accurate as that may be that only Jesus’ blood can cover our sins, I think it is the wrong focus. If you could do it yourself, would you? Are you only turning to Jesus because you can’t? What if you had some special thing happen and you were not born into sin and you never sinned? Do you now think you should go to heaven or deserve heaven? What is heaven? If you lived a sinless life and was somehow born without sin, and you desire eternal life and comfort, than I know you won’t be in heaven. Heaven isn’t just a place of comfort, it is a place where we are with God. But if you have no sin, I guess you don’t need God, nor do you need Jesus? According to the wordless book and message, God is only needed to give us heaven and Jesus there to allow us to get there.

Now most Christians who use the wordless book would quote scripture to say that all have sinned and all are born sinners so my point is moot. But I don’t think you response should be, “it’s impossible to not sin, here is Scripture that says so”. That kind of drives my point home of sin appearing to be their ultimate problem. And when you really get down to it, I don’t many actually think this way. But unfortunately, it is the way we “preach the gospel”.

I know that all I have is from God and that is why God deserves all the credit/glory for everything. It is Him who gave me my strength, passions, intelligence, family, church, and all those things that made me who I am today. I don’t think God should be given glory because the Bible says so or it is a nice Christian platitude, it is literally credit/glory that belongs to Him. So even if I could be perfect and was born with no sin, I would still need God. I mean, the only reason I was able to be sinless was because of what God did in me that made me that way. The credit still goes to Him and my dependence is still on Him. Sin (the action) isn’t my problem, sin (rejecting God’s presence, help and stealing His glory) is the problem. If I was created without sin and never sinned, if I was to claim it is because how awesome I am, that would be a sin. Because we are created beings, and we have to give credit to the one who created us for the way we are and if we don’t we are stealing that glory from the Creator.

But I know all the credit belongs to God. I also know, I depend on Him for everything. I know that He is loving, good, righteous, merciful, gracious, and just, and knowing that, I desire His will to be done. That is what heaven is. A place where God’s will is done. There will be comforts there, but that isn’t the goal or desire, I want the Healer, not the healing. So is sin the problem?

Some will even rightly say that heaven is a place where we can be with God, not just a place of comfort. But then will go back to the formulaic reasoning that we need to have faith in Jesus to access heaven to be with God. Which again is true, but you are holding up sin as the problem or some obstacle and the main goal is to overcome it.

Sin is such a charged word. Most of the time is is referring to an action, but sometimes it refers to a condition. Meaning we did a bad thing (action) and that needs atoned for. What if you didn’t do a bad thing? Do you not need God or Jesus then?

Or some use it as a condition, it is a rebellious heart all humans are born with and we desire to do things our own way, which insults/steals God’s glory. Even if it was doing something as innocent as eating a fruit. This action hurt no one, but it was forbidden by the One who knows what is best for us and was trying to protect us. We thought we knew a better way. But once Jesus saves us cleanses us, He fixes our condition right? We now know that God is good and we desire His will and our condition is fixed right? So why do we need Jesus or God anymore?

We are thankful for Him saving us, so we are responding in gratitude. All of our actions and motivations are attempting to repay. We know we never could repay, nor do we have to, but our human conditions still forces us to obey God in thanksgiving.

The reason we love ‘moral’ lives as a Christian is because we transformed us. That is what salvation is, salvation from the darkness we were in. Think of the 10 commandments like a guard rail. I would love to murder that person, but WHAM (you smack into that guard rail that is the 6th commandment). I would love to steal that item WHAM (you run into the 10th commandment). God doesn’t want us living a life bouncing off guard rails over and over. Though technically, as long as you are hitting that guard rail, you aren’t going off road, which is a sin. The 10 commandments were not rules, there were a heart mirror or a barometer. As Jesus said, if you are angry with another, you have just committed murder. When one violated the commandment, it was revealing their hearts intent.

But when we are saved, when we receive the Light of God, we then desire to drive better. We are no longer held back by the guard rails, we don’t even get close to them, because we are being transformed into the character of God. I don’t think God is restrained by rules. Like He wants to not show mercy, but they remembers He has to follow the rules and forced to. So why do we live that way? It is a much smother ride when you are living it bouncing off of guard rails. Without them, yes we might find ourselves of road at times. Thankfully we know God is always there to place us back onto the road. The only reason we are able to drive at all is because of Him.

I haven’t always known what I know now nor have been given the wisdom I have now and yes I have sinned and yes my sin did need atoned for. “It was His will to crush Him” Isiah 53:10. It was God’s will to use Jesus to atone for my sins, and if I desire God’s will, of course I will believe in that and that will save me. But sin wasn’t some obstacle holding my back that I needed fixed to gain access to heaven. God sent Jesus for many reasons, like a multifaceted diamond or an orchestra piece with many different instruments that bring that piece together. The stings aren’t wrong, but they aren’t the entire piece. The percussion isn’t wrong, but it isn’t the whole piece and it doesn’t sound as fully good unless all parts are there in harmony.

There is a tale from Basil, Switzerland. A horseman is riding through the night, anxious to reach the town that lies on the edge of the great Lake Constance. His plan is to spend the night and the next day take to cross the lake by ferry. He rides and rides, never knowing how far he has gone or how fast he has traveled. When he finally reaches the town after dark he asks a woman how much further to the lake. She then tells him that he is passed the lake, on the far side of the shore and ferry. It then dawns on the rider that he crossed the frozen lake by mistake. He is overcome by the fear of what could have happened to him, falling through the ice in the darkness.) He was doomed, and miraculously escaped, and now he is safe.

Sometimes it is when we are safe and saved that only then we can understand the death behind us and we are grateful for it. Versus ensuring people see the death in front of or under them and urging them how you are here to help them and they must listen to you. If we show the light and love of God to others and make Him so ravishing that they have to know Him, then they might see the err of their ways when their eyes are opened. We don’t have to scare the consequences of their current situation, nor preach that we know they way and they are lost. It can be a little condescending and it isn’t a surprise many get defensive or are in denial of their situation and resist even more that they need saved from anything and they think you are crazy for suggesting they are over an abyss when they seem to be standing on it fine and have traveled over this icy lake their entire life and it doesn’t appear to be fragile to them.

Maybe the book should start on the gold pages, and after they see God’s goodness and love, they can then learn about the black and the red.

I am a firm believer that there are a multitude of paradoxes in the Bible.  I think some try to downplay them or say “we just don’t understand the context” and “the Bible can’t contradict itself”.  Which just shows their faith is in the Bible and what people told them of the Bible and this forced doctrine that the Bible is “infallible”, and a paradox would be an imperfection crushing their faith. 

However I think it is beautiful how many paradoxes there are in the Bible and in life and I think God uses them on purpose to make things a mystery to humans, to humble us and ensure we realize we are human and not God (Deut 29:29).  We like to understand everything and be able to explain everything, but sometimes it is best to “let go and let God” as the saying goes. Once you understand something you can control it. God can’t and won’t be controlled or understood fully. But He wants us to try. Trying to understand someone is VERY intimate, to get to know them better, whether you succeed or not. Again with end goals, the idea of getting to know someone is not to figure them out or be able to control them, but just to value what you learn to know about them. If you mapped out every micrometer of the grand canyon, (first of all, that would take an eternity) you wouldn’t enjoy it as much as seeing it as a whole. In a microscopic context, it is just some rock molecules. It isn’t until one steps back that it becomes the grand canyon. Sometimes a closer hike is neat too, or a satellite view of it’s entirety is neat too. But being there in person to see much of it, but not all of it, and not the fine details of it is breathtaking and you will never fully understand it. That is the best analogy I could attempt to get close to what knowing God is like. He desires us to enjoy Him and get to know what and how much He reveals to us, and even that is good for us and for our benefit.

There are many paradoxes, but the one God revealed to me today was how the last becomes the first.  Phil 2.  The highest of high, God Himself came incarnate Himself to Earth, and became the lowest of lows. 

Phil 2:6-8 Who, being in very nature^[a] God,
    did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;
⁷ rather, he made himself nothing
    by taking the very nature^[b] of a servant,
    being made in human likeness.
⁸ And being found in appearance as a man,
    he humbled himself
    by becoming obedient to death—
        even death on a cross!

You can’t become higher than Jesus.  He gave 100%.  Though I don’t just mean death if you read my other blogs you see I mean that He gave His life.  He gave His breathing breath and existence to servitude of others, and more importantly God.   Few, but some will die for others, though mostly for friends, and even less will die for their enemies, but they might.  But no one will ever live in servitude of others as Jesus did.  That blows me away and I am surprised it doesn’t get as much focus on it, most of it goes to crucifixion, even in this verse above.  Dying is relatively easy….not to minimize the pains of a crucifixion, but it is somewhat passive.  Making that decision to be crucified would be very difficult, which is probably why He cried tears of blood and prayed so fervently to not have to do that.  But once that decision is made, it is very passive, you don’t have to do anything, exert any effort, it just happens to you.  BUT servitude, THAT is an active thing.  To serve others (even your enemies) with your will and strength.   There is no person in history that even comes close to doing half of that.  Though we don’t know much of Jesus’ early life, it is clear He gave His last years in full servitude after being baptized by the Holy Spirit (which also goes off to another tangent, which I am too good at doing).  But even God incarnate seemed to need the help of the Holy Spirit to become a servant to all, don’t you think we might need That/It/Him too?  But even if there was a human who served 10 years in total servitude to mankind and like Jesus gave 100% of themselves, it STILL would not equal to what Jesus gave up.

If you give away a trillion dollars and that is 100% of what you own, it is similar to one who has $100 and gives it all away.  They both give 100%, but, the one who gave away a trillion obviously gave away more.  As it might be fairly easy for a lower class individual to give their last years of servitude towards man, but you would never see a king do this.  It would be much more difficult, much more of a sacrifice, even though both would be giving 100%.  Being that God is of infinite glory, and gave 100% of it away, no onw will ever to be able to give away as much as He has.

But that is where things get interesting.  Phil 2:9 “Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
    and gave him the name that is above every name”  So because He gave away more than anyone ever could, He was exalted above everyone.  Enter Matt 19:30 and many other verses speaking of “the last becoming the first”.  The problem is as humans we are so goal driven and result driven, this goes right past us.  If you are to serve a person and become last so that you will be first, you will never be first and it will all come crashing down.  The amazing thing about Jesus is, He was not TRYING to be first.  He wasn’t looking at the end result, He wasn’t trying to give away max so that He could be exalted above all, He simply wanted to be last.  Phil 2:3 “Rather, in humility value others above yourselves,”  Jesus simply was trying to exalt others above Himself!  THAT is AMAZING!  And it works out like a perpetual motion, the opposite of a snowball effect.

I have always preached or believed that God deserved all glory, and that God created everything for His glory.  I am not sure I believe that anymore.  Those thoughts probably came from my human mind and my cultural biases.  God creates things because He VALUES THEM!!!  I thought the sun and starts were amazing and proclaim God’s glory (which they do).  And God deserves that glory, because He did in fact create those things.  But God is not some power hungry, needy egotistical maniac that that would make Him out to be.  Just imagine someone creating something so they could be praised for it?  Then humans too?  How worthless and used is that object.  If it dies out, it’s ok, I can bring another one to replace the glory deserved for me?  But to think of things created because they are valued?!  Why was the sun and starts created?  Because it is valued. Why were animals created?  Because they are valued.  Why were humans created?  Because they are valued!  All of that does happen to bring God glory, but that is just the truth.  A truth is there no matter what you feel of like, it just it.  Like God is I am that I am, the truth is what it is.  Everything God creates proclaims of His glories, but that is not WHY He created them.  He created things that He values!  Some more than others, like humans over animals, and animals over rocks, but He values it all.  There is no end goal trying to be achieved here.

But this is where it gets even more amazing.  The God of the universe is so loving and values His creation so much, He is overjoyed in blessing His creations.  To lift up others and more valuable than Him is His goal.  If you sit at the lowest of honors at the table, and the host says, no please, sit at the table of most honor, and you say, no, please, let others be exalted above me, I will sit at the lowest.  The honor brought to yourself will be higher than others.  So God, who loves to lift us all above His spot, trying to get ‘below us’.  But in doing to, we see this and exalt Him even higher.  He in turn blesses us, trying to lift us up higher, and we in turn praise Him, and it is the overflowing well of water Jesus speaks of.  A snow ball effect or perpetual motion, and overflowing spring that never dries up.  The more your overflow, the more is supplied and the more you overflow!  We aren’t giving God glory because we want a reward (which speaks of not letting the left hand know what the right hand is doing Matt 6).  If you do good to be glorified, you are robbing God of glory He deserves yes, but also not elevating Him as He deserves, and He cannot elevate you.  What man sees and does for you is your reward.  But if you do something to glorify God, who deserves all the glory (remember He deserves it, but He doesn’t demand or ask of it), God is elevated, and He is able to elevate you.  So even is God getting glory, He doesn’t want it because He deserves it, but because it ELAVATES us! Imagine someone doing something and rightfully getting the glory they deserve.  That is why they did that thing, they wanted glory.  And if you steal that glory from them, they get upset, because it belongs to them.  Now in contrast imagine someone doing something and not getting the glory they deserved.  And it upsets them, because in them not getting that glory, YOU cannot be blessed from it.  What is upsetting them is that YOU are being robbed of YOUR potential!  The potential you could have received had you given them the glory.  How paradoxically magnificent is our GOD!?!?!?!?

I can’t believe it took me so long to see this.  God loves us and values us THAT much.  He didn’t just die for us, He didn’t just live/serve for us, He actively is doing everything He can FOR US!

Now don’t get that twisted that we are to worship man or that God worships man at all.  But I do believe He loves His creations that much.  It is spelled out in the Bible for us in SO many different passages.  Love is not this abstract concept God wants us to use as a tool to get things done, but it doesn’t really apply to Him.  He tells us what love is.  It is sacrificial, it is exalting one above yourself!  God is love, all love comes form God, and if love is exalting others above yourself, that God must be exalting us all above Him!  Which is impossible, and we praise Him for, which exalts Him even more!

How do we know that God loves us? So many (including John) will say “because He sent His only Son to die for us”, to which I don’t not think is wrong at all, but I disagree with that as the complete answer. We know He loves us because He considers us more valuable than Himself! That is what love is! Everything in our existence we can see Him trying to bless/exalt/elevate us in everything He did! The life, death and resurrection of Jesus is just a relatively tiny (though also paradoxically relatively massive) evidence of such love.

The world is a broken amusement park.

Phil Vischer uses this analogy, but it connected so deep with me, I really enjoy it and like to expand on it.  I heard this on the Phil Vischer podcast and I highly recommend listing to it and my favorite person to listen to is Skye Jethani.  The Lord is clearly with him and I praise God for using him as He has in my life.

So when God created Eden, He created an amusement park.  A place where you could have a ton of fun and enjoyment, and no one would get hurt or ever be sad.  The thing is, why didn’t anyone ever get hurt?  Was it because it was perfect?  Many seem to think of Eden as perfection in form, though I think it was more a perfection in function.  God never says the form was perfect, only that it was good, and it was.  And many believe that sin ruined it or caused the form to be drastically changed and caused it to lose it’s perfect form, as if it was cursed. 

Let’s say that all the rides created had flaws to them, BUT God was always there to avert that flaw from having and functional effect on them.  Like one ride they went up the hill so fast, it flew off the track headed for certain doom, but then God would always create a new track or catch them and bring them back on the track and everyone always had a blast and no one got hurt, it was good in function.  But this goodness relied on God to occur.  It wasn’t the form that was good, but God’s intervention, or our dependence on God that made it function good.  

But there was this one ride, and it was broken as well (it had missing bolts in it and was waiting to fall apart but never would if no one got on it), but it looked like a blast, but we were told NOT to ride on it.  We decided to get on it, and when it broke, we got hurt.  Well, no one wants to go to an amusement park were people get hurt.  It wasn’t the plan of the Creator for this to happen, so he had to leave it.  He told us one day, He will create a new park, one that will be perfect in form that we can come to.

Some say that “the fall” is what caused our world to be broken like this.  As if some curse is some magic that occurred that completely transformed the form of our world.  Like fire didn’t exist, or thorns or death and the physical world we know of was completely different.  I don’t think this makes sense.  It was good, God didn’t need to change it, or allow some curse, some magical power beyond His own to change it.  Death was part of creation.  New life can’t happen without death, it is the nitrogen cycle, trees grow and die to make room for new ones.  Thorns are on some plants, heat, with oxygen and fuel makes fire, fire burns things, “kills” or harms things. 

But just like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, fire didn’t hurt them.  Why?  Because God was with them.  So this curse wasn’t God or some curse radically transforming the world’s form, rather the function of it radically transforming.  God was no longer there to catch us when we fell, or to use miracles to hold a frame together without bolts.  The “curse” was God leaving us, losing the function of perfection, choosing to no longer depend on God.  I don’t think child birth would have been painful, I don’t think it would have hurt to have a snake bite you if God is there.  This is what God is teaching us, to learn to rely on Him, and not ourselves or a perfect form.  That He is the reason everything He created was good, not the thing it itself that was good.

In heaven, everything might have perfect form, but we won’t know the difference or care.  It will be perfect in function, we do know that.  I do believe it will be perfect in form, but God taught us to rely on Him, we probably won’t see or know the difference.  If we can walk through fire and not be hurt, will we remember that fire would have hurt if it wasn’t for God?  Those in heaven desire God’s will regardless, and are dependent on God regardless.  So what was the point of it all?  From Genesis 1 to now and beyond?

Well we know that all things are created for God’s glory and are done for His glory and He deserves all glory for all things.  So how does it seem He achieved this?

When you watch a movie, is it a good or memorable movie if all you saw was the climax or the end?  Why was the death star blown up, why are they having a parade for Luke, Han and Chewy?  You need a movie, a story to understand, to give it significance.  You need to feel connected to the characters, to understand who they are, what struggles they had.  To empathize with them, to connect to them.  God created us for connection.  So much so, that He even wanted to connect with us!  He wasn’t some far away God, or a talking voice, He came incarnate Himself to this world to connect with us in person.  To feel us to understand us, to teach us.

Why does God get angry?  Is anger bad?  Why is sin allowed?  Anger is not good generally, but it can be the right thing at times.  But what is mercy?  To not give what someone what they deserve, to withhold suffering deserved from one who angered you.  If you were never angry, then you can never know what mercy is.  Without the detriments of sin, you cannot know holy God is or how much we need Him.  Adam was born always being caught by God on the rides, and no bolts being needed, so that is all he knew.  Which was great, but if he never know the perils or this imperfect form, then how would he know the greatness of God who protected Him from it?  Contrasting.  In a spectrum or continuum of white and black, if you zoom in close enough, you cannot tell the difference between this shade of grey or black or white and that shade, one gradient of color the exact same color as the next when you look at it.  It is only when you zoom out and look at the fart left and the far right and see that what you thought was the same was actually opposites!  It was the contrast that revealed this to you.

So now we are in this broken amusement park.  God promises us that he will make it right some day and to just trust Him.  I say make it right and not “fix” for a reason.  The word God used when He says “new” is not new like, we have an old busted 50’s truck, and He makes a brand new 2022 extended cab shiny truck.  New means to transform the 50’s truck, to restore it back to new.  Heaven isn’t a distant new place, God will bring Heaven to Earth.  The kingdom of God is at hand.  This is what Jesus meant.  It is here already.  Any place where the will of God is done IS heaven.  He will come to reign on this earth and all those who wanted Him to reign will be here and the function will be perfect again.  Now He might make it a perfect form, I am not sure of that.  But again, we won’t care, as it is not the form we worship, rather the One who Formed it.  The difference this time, is that we know the only reason it is perfect in function is due to God and our dependence on Him.

So back to the broken amusement park.  There are some who do their best to ignore the hurt of this world.  Maybe 100 people just died when the ride fell over, but that is 100 miles away, it doesn’t effect me, and I am having a BLAST on this ride here.  That is all I care about.  And if I punch people and throw them down, I can get in line ahead of them and enjoy this ride I love so much even more.  I have some family members that I hurt people for so they can enjoy what I enjoy and I teach them to band together as a tribe so that our tribe gets the most enjoyment.  Some do this until they die, in an ignorant bliss.  They never see the hurt, or how much their needs to be a fix, it isn’t broken to them, and they die never believing there needs to be a fix.  But sometimes, one of their tribe gets harmed.

“It isn’t supposed to be this way”  That is what you hear from many people when a tragedy happens.  A school shooting or bombing, a hurricane kills thousands.  When one uses that phrase, they are correct, and not an atheist.  By those very words, they are proclaiming there is a Creator, and Engineer, a Grand Designer, who made something a certain way, and it isn’t working out as designed.  And atheist would simply say, this is nature, oh well.  There is no meaning outside their personal feelings.  Not to say that they don’t have empathy or feelings towards their fellow humans who are suffering, as I know a many who do.  And I don’t have such and animosity towards atheist to think that if they don’t worship my God they are evil depraved humans with no morals.  But they can’t say it isn’t supposed to be this way, there is no way it is supposed to be in atheism.  They might say, well, this sucks really bad, how can I or we make it better.  Because atheist or a Deist religion can all agree that we should try to make it better. 

But there in lies the problem, humanity.  We are not God.  One we are flawed, but even if that human was to be perfect, they still wouldn’t know the best way.  Jesus was the only perfect human, and He was God Himself, but even HE didn’t know the right way.  This is one (of the many things) of the things we can learn from Jesus.  Jesus in the garden didn’t want to be crucified to save us, but “Not my will, but Yours”.  Jesus is saying, I don’t even know the right thing to do and I am perfect, so let Your will be done.  And that is the only right thing to do, is God’s will.  But I will digress to the fact that I don’t think any atheist will claim to be perfect and though they may have impressive knowledge, they still won’t know what is best for all.

So we are now in a broken amusement park, and we see people getting harmed at it, and that is not good, so we decide to fix it.  So we gather together with like minded people and come up with at plan.  First of all, in the history of humanity, the world has never agreed on ANYTHING and that will probably never happen. Before we can even come up with a plan to try and fix it, we have to agree that this level of fun we are having is worth it.  Because some don’t even think this level of fun is worth all the harm caused and just want to sit all day.  Are they wrong?  Some of these folks hate so much to see people getting hurt, they will actually come up with their own tribe of like minded folks, who prevent people from even riding at all.  They might even kill those in line.  If they only have to kill 1000 people, that will scare people enough to not ride this that they will be saving millions of lives right?  Is it worth it to kill 1000 people to save a million?  What about killing 1 to save a billion?  Where do you draw the line?

But wait a minute, you think like is pointless if you just sit around all day, you want to enjoy the ride.  So your tribe gathers enough that you can go to war against those preventing you from riding.  Because everyone might as well be dead if they are just going to lay around and not ride it.  So if you are making life worth living for million, than it is worth killing a 1000 over.  Or if you can make life worth living for a billion, it is worth killing 1 person over right? 

So you originally had a noble desire, and great intentions.  You saw a broken ride that was absolutely worth riding, and you wanted to come up with a plan to fix it, but now some of you are sidetracked fighting a war and you aren’t even fixing it what was your noble intent to save others in fixing it.  So lets say your “tribe” wins the war finally.  And you have been so busy not at war trying to fix it, you actually came up with a great plan.

The problem with humans is perspective.  If you stand above this line and you stand below this line and I ask what number you see, you see a 6 and they see a 9.  Neither of you is wrong, and you are both right, but for whatever reason, you cannot get to their side of the line, and they cannot get to your side, and they will always be wrong in your eyes.

So lets say come up with a plan to put bolts on the ride.  Well, the other person came up with a plan to bind it with a bracket or a strap.  Let’s just say that either way will work, but like the 6 and the 9, you cannot see that from your side, and from your side, that is wrong.  So now you end up going to war again.  You have the bolt tribe and the strap tribe.  Both think it is worth killing X amount of people to save XX amount of people.  Again, this noble effort is not going very will exactly.

So you see this and take a break from planning and going to war.  You decide to gain power.  For when you have power, you will be able to scare them enough so that you don’t have to kill them, you will have your way through fear.  Again a noble cause of trying to save lives, and even not killing to do it, just using fear. 

So you start to get political and get people to join your cause.  But they decide to do the same thing and gain power.  And you see an opportunity to harm the leader of their cause.  Though you were swearing to not kill in a war any more to save the masses, if you just harm this one, it will help you out so much.  Then you start blurring the lines and before you know it, you are so far from fixing this ride and people are still riding it and dying on it all this time you are amassing power, and you turn into a very evil person in the process.  And you die before you actually cause any change, and you lived a terrible life, harming so many in your quest for power.  But it was power to do a noble thing right?

So what is a Christian to do in this broken world?  What did Jesus do?  Should we try to fix the world?  More specifically, should we try to fix the form of the world?  If God didn’t create a perfect form, how much of a sin is that to attempt to “fix” it?  Do you really think you can do a better job than God?  God could, but doesn’t want to fix the form of the world, He wants to fix the function of the world.  He created us to rely on Him, the One who can see the 6 and the 9, to rely on Him to have a perfect function and that is why He incarnated Himself to this world and to come and fix it, and He did!

That is the good news!  Euangelion!  Eua meaning good, and gelion meaning proclaim. It was the word used when a new king was pronounced.  There is a new king, a new Caesar!  This is great news, proclaim it to all.  This is what the Gospel means!  Proclaim to all that Jesus is Lord!

But how did Jesus fix it?  I still see people getting hurt?  You can’t fix something that isn’t broken.  If something is made or designed to be incomplete or imperfect in form, you can’t fix it.  But He did fix the function of it.  “The Kingdom of God is at hand”  It is here.  What we are called to do as Christians, what Jesus did was to trust God, depend on God and tend to those who are harmed.  Don’t try to fix the form, because it isn’t broken, fix the function and trust God.  Don’t get wrapped up in arrogance that you can fix it if only, don’t worry about the ends, worry about the means.  All sin is, is missing the mark, an archery term.  The mark is, to rely on God in all and give God the glory in all and to desire God’s will in all things.  When you try to fix the world’s form, you are taking glory from God in thinking that you can fix it.  You are not relying on God, but yourself to fix it.  And you are not following His will, but yours, that you want it fixed, as if you are in control of the ends.

But we aren’t just talking about death.  Many are physically harmed or emotionally or physiologically harmed.  Some of this causes them to do more harm and it grows like a cancer worse than death.  Because you were harmed by others and you harm others to prevent more harm and teach that to your kids and now this pain spreads and multiplies.  This is what God’s light does in the opposite direction.  You show God’s love to another, and they see God in that act, they come to know God and show His love to another and it spreads like light uncovering darkness, which reveals the hood which has that cover removed which reveals and spreads bringing light to all.  This is what Israel was supposed to be, a shining light on a hill.  This is the reason for all of those rules.  The problem is, they thought these rules would fix the form.  If we had all followed God’s laws, He would return to us and again help prevent the brokenness of this world from hurting us again.  But we couldn’t follow His laws, we tried it a bunch of times.  We had to learn it wasn’t the laws that would save us, but in following the laws, God would return and it would have been our reliance on God that saved us.  But we couldn’t even get to that point as we couldn’t follow all of those laws, even though had we, it still wouldn’t have helped.  Then Jesus came, the true light, revealing that it is God that we needed, not the laws.  But not to say the laws were bad, had we followed the laws, they would have led to great results. But in following and desiring God’s will, we would still get those results that the laws would have given us.  But now we didn’t have to strive to do so many laws which appeared to be impossible.  All we had to do was to rely on God.  Acknowledge we are flawed, that we aided to the harm or others, and asking for His will.  He told us His will is for Him to help us, to help us by sending Jesus to die for us, so that we can be forgiven of our sins.  I go into this more in depth on this post God doesn’t hold grudges – Seeking God (home.blog).

We will see people hurt in this world.  Yes the form is broken (but it was never meant to be fixed), but more importantly, the function is broken (and that was absolutely meant to be fixed).  We are to trust that God is good, loving, merciful and just.  We are to tend to those in need, mourn with those who are sad.  We can use these things to fix the function, we can use these things to point people to God.  Then they will learn to rely on God and to tend to those harmed by this broken world.  Sometimes, God still intervenes and stops a tragedy from happening, He prevents the curse from hurting us, by being with us like those in the fire who weren’t harmed.  Other times He shows Himself to others through us.  Remember, He became incarnate to dwell with us!  He loves to use us to heal.  We heal others by meeting their physical and emotional needs.  But once healed, we are still in a world not functioning properly and the only true healing is to know God and desire His will.  Then you can stand in fire and not be hurt.  You body might still get physical pain, but your soul is healed.   You can live a life trusting God, knowing that He can use you to help His will be done, and that one day you will be with Him in His new/restored creation were He will reign and cause perfect function again.

Do I desire to be in heaven right now?  NO!  I desire God’s will.  If God wanted me in heaven, then I would be there.  I actually am in heaven, because I am where God wants me to be, for heaven for me is to be in God’s will.  For if you are in God’s will, even fire is a great place to be.  We can’t be so focused on matters of the flesh.  There is suffering of the flesh, but all suffering of the flesh is good.  But there is not one time in the Bible I can find where suffering of the soul is ever good.  That is despair, that is hell.  Just as anger can be used to show mercy, despair is there to show hope!  Suffering of the flesh is there to bring hope and salvation to our souls!

Keep in mind that the kingdom is God is where we do God’s will, and God’s will is to trust Him and love others.  Loving meaning caring and tending to the needs of others.  Helping those who are harmed by this world.  Showing them God in us, so they can see God and be eternally helped by saving their soul from the despair of this broken world.

So how did Jesus fix the world?  Satan thought Jesus was trying to fix the form and if he could only kill Jesus before it got fixed, he would have won.  That is why in the resurrection of Jesus, the powers of darkness fell, Satan was made a spectacle of.  It showed that this whole time we were trying to fix the world’s form, when we were supposed to be fixing it’s function.  And how do we fix it’s function?  By trusting God and following His will even to the point of death, even death on a cross.  In doing this, Jesus ascended to Heaven, to become Lord of all, the new King, Euangelion!  Some who are trying to fix the world don’t know the gospel.  They claim to know that Jesus died for our sins, He forgives us of them, and makes us righteous through Him.  The “divine transfer” of Jesus taking our sins and giving us His righteousness.   And I am not saying at all that that is untrue.  But that isn’t the good news.  The good news is that Jesus is LORD!  We don’t need to fix the form of this world, Jesus fixed the function of it and revealed to us how to live in it and love others and trust God fixed it through Him!  If you know God isn’t trying to fix the form of the world, we will stop trying to fix it.  The good news is He fixed the function of the world, so we don’t need to fix the function or the form.  We just need to trust Him, ask Him to forgive us for trying to fix it, for all the wrongs we did in attempting to fix it, love others and let Him reign!

There are plenty of people in this world who were not healed when Jesus was on earth.  The rides where fixed either.  But He did love and tend to those who were harmed by this world.  Those whom God placed in His life to tend to.  He wasn’t and nor are we here to tend to all and heal all those who had their flesh harmed by this world.  Only those who God placed in His life.  God only wants you to do , what He wants you to do.  And if you don’t do it, it will still get done.  But you will lose out on having had an opportunity to have been used by our great God.  We must have faith that He is in control and is using others to do their job.  The hand is no more important to the body than the eye, and visa versa.  The hand can’t do it all, and nor can the eye, but it can do it’s job and trust that God will have all parts work in concert to achieve His will. 

STOP trying to fix the world!  STOP being hateful and compromising a little to save a lot!  Love God, love others, have faith!

I think most Christians would agree with that, but they seem to end up preaching doctrine that contradicts that.  To hold a grudge is to treat some in an unfavorable way in the present or future because of something they did in the past.  Even in the OT when it speaks of God’s wrath, many see that is God treating someone in an unfavorable way for something they did in the past.  You might think I am blaspheming or watering down things to make God seem more palatable or contradicting that fact that God will judge all, and will judge them all justly.

Is there one instance at all in the Bible were is shows God acting unfavorably towards someone due to their past actions?  You might mention Sodom and Gomorrah.  Didn’t God kill them all for doing bad things?  Or the flood, all of humanity?  This wasn’t like God was mad at them and was lashing out at them.  He simply didn’t want that thing occurring any more nor the spreading of those acts and prevented them from spreading and stopped them from occurring.  It is like if your child kept getting into trouble around a certain group of people, so you moved or sent them to boarding school.  He cares for the offender, that He removes them from their situation.  Better for a milestone hung around their neck and drowned than to continue.  We can’t think in terms of the flesh that life is all we have.  Life is a blessing and our flesh has a purpose here, but our ultimate purpose is for our spirit to be made whole again.  If that would be some time spent in Hades for that to occur, that is better than more time on earth “digging a deeper hole” for us and having even more fall into that hole.  But this is also what was so transforming when Jesus came.  God no longer had the need to wipe people from the earth, instead, He transformed people on the earth.

It is my belief that God forgives everyone instantly always and doesn’t hold any grudges ever.  Justice is the right thing.  Justice is not what we call it in the western world were a judge rules what their wisdom and experience and laws deem a punishment should be, nor is it and eye for and eye, nor what the victim’s anger thinks should happen.  It is simply the right thing.  So if the perfect Judge decides mercy is needed, that that is the right thing.  That is why it is just to not have sinners punished, because God gave us His mercy in the form of Jesus’ atoning death.  With humans, we can be deceived and someone can lie and fake remorse, but God sees our hearts, we cannot deceive Him.  But if a human sees remorse, and decides to extend mercy, are humans more merciful than God, the giver and Father of mercy?  All things come from God and the love that prompts mercy came from God, and we cannot love more than Him or absent of Him.

But just because God forgives is all instantly and without limit doesn’t mean we can receive that forgiveness instantly.  Forgiveness is a two way street, it has to be given, and accepted.  But one can only accept when they are remorseful and repentant.  That is why it appears God is waiting for us to repent before He can forgive.  Because we must repent before forgiveness is complete.  And God helps us get to that point through punishment and correction like a parent does.  Suffering is not a requirement of God before He can forgive.  But suffering can help lead us to repentance, but so does His kindness.  His wrath is only poured out on those who refuse to repent and receive His forgiveness, who think they can make up for or pay for the mistake by themselves.  And I do believe God will allow them to try as long as it takes (which is an eternity until annihilation).  But for those that humble themselves, admit that they messed up, request God forgive them (and God did more than meet us halfway there by sending His Son to show us how He already forgives us and wants us to trust in Him), forgiveness is made complete.

I don’t see any Bible verses that support that this has to be done on earth either while living in the flesh.  I do see a judgement day where all will stand before God and He will ask them a simple question.  Would you like to try and repay this yourself, or will you rely on me.  I think those that desire God’s will, will have that eternally, and those that don’t will be annihilated. 

We need God.

We need God period.  I wish that was emphasized more in the doctrines.  All too frequently I hear that “we need God to send His Son to save us from our sins”.  To which I don’t think is wrong and don’t disagree with that statement.  But I find such a specific and narrow statement frames and entire theology and doctrine, which seems misleading to me.

I believe we are created like a tripod, and God is the third leg, or the second and third leg.  The point being, without the second or third leg, it’s not a tripod, and it will fall.  It cannot do it’s purpose without those last two legs, its purpose is to support something.  We were created as humans to rely on God or lean on Him, like the second or third tripod leg and without them’, we fall over.  It’s that simple.

When people talk about “the fall” and “original sin” and that we “need Jesus” it almost seems to frame this wrong.  It is almost like humans are perfect, we don’t need God and we were created perfect, but sin came along, and NOW we are messed up.  So we need this special thing done by God to erase those sins and make us perfect again.  Some even go as far as saying God’s hands were tied and the only way to save us was to send Jesus to save us, like there is some power above God requiring this of Him.  They will say things like “God’s perfection and holiness required a perfect sacrifice”.  And I get were that line of thought comes from.  Heb 9:22 says “without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness”.  But we must remember the context here and who the author is talking to, the Hebrews/Jews.  The Israelites/Jews had a covenant with God saying that very thing, that a sacrifice was required for forgiveness of sins, so it makes sense for that audience. 

But lets go back to the garden of Eden.  Man had direct communion with God right?  He walked with them and they have not sinned yet.  Humans were created to rely on God and trust God in all decisions, and to do any act apart from His will is a sin.  How do we chose to only do His will, we are flawed humans?  The answer is that we need God period.  If Adam relied on God, then He wouldn’t have don’t his own will and sinned.  If sin was the problem, then how did Adam screw up before “sin entered the world”?  The problem is that humans are by themselves flawed and need God.  Like a tripod without all three legs is a human without God.  And if sin was the problem, God could have sent Jesus then, and atoned for his sin and we would have been back to square one, and Adam probably would have sinned again.

God wants us to want Him.  That is basically salvation.  Anyone that wants to do the will of God is saved.  Now we know that it was God’s will to crush Jesus.  It is also God’s will to have basic laws of physics and thermodynamics, which God decides to deviate from time to time.  But it seems He wants the mass general rule to be physics, and He wants all to be atoned of by Jesus.  But I fully believe God could snap His fingers or speak the words and all sins would be forgiven.  After all, Jesus (who was God) forgave the woman of her sins with words, and God forgave the sins of Isiah with a hot stone.  So why not do that for everyone?  Because sin (the act of it) is not the problem, a human not humbled enough to understand they need God is THE problem.  God loves us and wants what is best for us, and that just happens to be for us to know that we need to rely on Him, which ultimately gives Him the maximum glory, which He deserves.  This is why Jesus came, it is multifaceted.  God wrote the history of the world, the relationships a father has with his son, the fact of sacrificial devotion towards another is an incredible act of love, the covenants of the OT to set up that a lamb would sacrifice to atone for sins.  It was His will for Jesus to be crushed.   God wanted to show us just how much He loves us, and how much we need Him.  That is why Jesus came.

Why doesn’t God stop the man who has a knife and decides to murder the other person?  He could, and in some cases does stop it.  I have read stories of physically not able to pull the trigger because God had different plans.  But again, the most part, God does no stop that act.  Because it is a bigger deal that the person wants to harm or end the other person.  That is a heart problem.  If you stop them this time, who is to say they won’t do it again or try again?  That person believes their will is more important than God’s and this is a problem, that needs fixed.  Right after, they could genuinely feel sorry and ask God to forgive them and God could.  But that person is then convinced that the act of a sin is the problem, and that has been forgiven, and they are good to go.  Until they sin again.  Until they realize they need to rely on God, they are not fixed.

Even after trusting in Jesus, having your sins forgiven, and having the Holy Spirit inside you, you still will probably end up sinning, but you are relying on God to help you now.  You realize you are dust, and you cannot do anything on your own, and even with the power of the Holy Spirit, you still screw up, you really deserve to be cast away from the Holy God.  But you also know God’s loving character, and that He just wants you to try to rely on Him and try your best.  He loves you because of who He is, not because of who you are or what you can or cannot do.  To know God and rely on Him is all you need to do, that is salvation.  It is the truth that sets you free, and Jesus said “I am the truth”.  It is Jesus that sets you free.  Not just from His death and atonement, but from the truths He revealed to us about God.

We need God because….No need to add any qualifiers that that statement, Just we need God.

A human can sprint as hard as they can for about 80 meters. After that EVERYONE slows down slightly, and some of the most elite athletes can almost sprint for about 400m, but even they slow down at about 80m. We just can’t give it our all forever. Paul speaks of running a marathon and not giving up, about running as hard as you can, about living like every day is your last.  I get the sentiment behind that, unfortunately some read that and have a great burden placed on them.  When they are only jogging or walking or even if they stop to take a break, they might feel like they are failing God.  They should be sprinting right, and never stopping right? And they should feel bad for not sprinting all the way right?  NO! 

When we are running, it means we have a desire to finish at some point.  If you run a marathon if you were to say that you walked for 30 seconds after every mile and sat down for every 5 miles for 5 min.  If you ran the 26 miles, you still finished!  To try your best, means you have the intention of finishing and you refuse to quit.  The second you walk off that course, you quit.  If you have someone bring food and water on the course and you sleep on the track, you mind and intent is still that you want to finish.  And you might never finish, BUT, you never stopped, your intent was always to at some point, to finish.  This is why I hate divorce so much and I believe why God hates it.  Even if you were to separate, to not see that person for months or years.  If you do not divorce or pursue a different person, you are still in the race, you are still married, joined together by God.  It is only when you divorce that you have given up, you have walked off the course/track.

God wants us to desire to honor Him, to keep running that race.  THAT is trying your hardest.  You physically cannot try your hardest, as no man can sprint more than 80m let alone 26 miles.  So don’t beat yourself up for resting, for walking in the race, maybe that is your best.  Now God could give you supernatural powers to sprint for 50 miles or run faster than any human can for 1000 of miles.  He is the Creator of everything He can do what He wants.  But unless He is obviously intervening, then we have limits.  Don’t compare yourself to others.  The guy who can sprint only 10 meters is not a failure or valued less by God than the one who can sprint for 80 meters.  He creates us all different, and values us all!  He just wants you to keep going, to not quit, to ask Him to help you.  A parent doesn’t dislike their 3 year old because they can’t do high level calculus like their 40 year old child who can that has 3 doctorates in high level math and physics.  That 3 year old might even grow up to be even smarter than the 40 year old.  But there aren’t there now.  God wants us where we are, He wants us to grow, to keep running, running our hardest, to not give up, to ask Him to help, to not feel guilty that we can’t or aren’t running harder than we are, or harder than anyone else, to be prideful that we are faster than anyone else.  If we are faster, it is only because God wants us to be and because He made us to be.  If we end up at age 60 and still can barely do basic multiplication tables, are we a disappointment to God?  If that is what He designed us to do, and we do that best for Him, that is EXACTLY what He wants us to do and maximizes glory for Him.  Yes running slower to God’s glory actually gives Him more glory than one who could run faster and looks down on those who run slow or thinks highly of themselves because of how fast they are. 

If you read all this as an excuse to be mediocre and “still go to heaven”, then you completely missed the point.  Like when Paul says that “should we keep sinning to maximize the mercy of Jesus?”  NO!  This isn’t a game, you can’t, nor need to manipulate or trick God, to say a few words or believe some words and get rewarded.  You simply see the truth of God, have His light and truth and love live inside you.  Ask for His help, humble yourself, realize that all you have is from Him and He serves all glory for anything good you do, and try your best.  If you happen to be slower than others and appear mediocre to others, it is ok.  Not just OK, but glorifies the Father when you do it for Him!  It is glorious that some of you (me) are much slower than others.  Because it is doing what you are designed/created to do, and to Him belongs all glory, forever and ever, AMEN!

The Bible says a lot of things, should I really base my beliefs on words in a book?

Let’s think about someone’s words and someone’s character/actions.  Let’s think about the Parable of Two Sons from Matthew 21.  The words of the first son were “ I will not”.  But the actions, were different.  He “went”.  The words of the second were “I will, Sir”.   But the actions were also different, and “He did not go”.

Now with humans, as is probable in this circumstance, they can say one thing and mean it, but change their mind.  But with God, though it is true His words never change, many different people can interpret them in many different ways.  If you read one of my older post with regards to perspective, and how one could look at a 6 and be right and the other could look at that same number from a different perspective and see a 9 and be right.  So how can we know how to interpret things correctly?  There are people with much more education and degrees than me that look into the history and the context and the language used and it is fascinating and potentially useful information.  But what I believe is even more telling, is the actions observed. 

One could look at the first son’s answer and say in that time period it was well known that the first son’s spoke opposite of what they meant.  Or based off my research, on Tuesdays of 15BC (which is when my studies and events I cross referenced with says this happened) was opposite day and the first son actually meant he was going to do it. Then you could have someone argue that based off of their research, it was a said on a Wednesday and they never lied on a Wednesday  ect.   Basically what I am getting at is, by the words alone, different perspectives get different answers.  So if my religion was based solely off of words, even what I believed to be ‘Holy Words’, my entire beliefs could actually be wrong, and unintentionally based off of ones interpretations.  However, when we look at the actions, there really is no potential for different interpretations, no different perspectives.  If the job that was asked was done, those are the actions, no interpretations.  Either done or not, observable and concrete.

All of that being said, what do we know about God, or what have we observed about Him?  It is said that there is no greater love than to give one’s life for another.  And what does give your life mean?  I specifically didn’t say “die for another”, but to “give one’s life”.  There are secret service that are willing to die for the president, to take a bullet, or soldiers willing to die for their country or parent willing to die for their kids.  But could they give their live for them?  Live every moment as a ‘slave’ to them, at their every beckon and call, doing the desires of them for their entire life?  But even this would be giving your life to a family or friend.  What if it was someone who hated you or you loved them, but they turned on you, treated you terribly.  Could you or would you still continue to live for them?  Devote every second and purpose of your life for them?

Jesus lived every second of His life honoring God, but it also honored God to serve man.  The ones that hated Him, and treated Him badly, He still served them, He gave His life (every second of it) to serve man (and in doing so, also serving God).  So yes Jesus died for us, but He also gave/devoted His life for us.  The creator or the world, the one who deserves the highest of all honors, because our servant.  How is that not the most incredible example of love?  A very clear distinction between the abductors ‘love’ and real love.  If you don’t agree that devoting every second of your life for your creation (even when most of that creation insults, mocks, and steals your rightful glory multiple times a day) up to the point of even dying for them, even death on a cross.  Then no need to read on further.

But everything you read in the Bible should be read through that lens of truth and love realized.  So when you read that God killed thousands of women and children or something that seems un-doable, or is absent of love, you must first realize how immense that love demonstrated was first.

There is the story of the poor man and Lazarus the rich man.  The rich man had a comfortable (but we have no clue how miserable or depressed that man could have really been) long life, and the poor man had a difficult life.  Maybe they both lived 100 years.  That poor man lived a miserable (possibly not even miserable, but uncomfortable, we have no idea of the joy he might have had with the circumstances he was given) 100 years, and then went to Paradise for eternity.  So we can comprehend it, lets say he went to Paradise for 1 trillion years (though eternity is unfathomably longer than that).  If a man suffered for 100 out of a trillion years, it would sound like that bad of a deal.  Compared to the guy that lived comfortable for 100, but then in Hades for a trillion years.  So who was more “blessed”?  What of those that died in Sodom and Gomorrah or Jericho?  Perhaps removing them from this wretched earth surrounded by wretched people was a blessing?  We don’t know what happened to them when they were removed from this earth.  We do know that God wanted to stop the wickedness on earth and He did.

Sure all of that is hypothetical, only God knows why He does what He does.  The point being, again, looking through knowing the amazing love God demonstrated, we can easily say that same love was given to all things He does.

We also see the actions of God at Nineveh.  God was going to pour out His wrath on them for their wickedness.  Not the wickedness of the past, but the current ongoing wickedness.  So pouring out wrath seems to mean again, to stop the active wickedness from occurring.  Because when Jonah spoke and told them about God and they repented, what happened.  The wrath never came.  There was no need to pour out wrath for things they did in their past.  And there was no more wickedness occurring in the present, so no wrath was poured.

The adulterer who was asked of Jesus to stone.  I think she was currently doing it, caught in the present even, with no sign or remorse maybe?  But what did Jesus do.  He forgave her, and it was most likely that kindness that lead her remorse and repentance.

There are countless examples of God’s wrath not being poured out for actions done in the past.  Does this mean that God is unjust?  Justice is met when the one offended says so.  Every time we sin, we offend God.  A sin is not doing the will of God, and it is saying, we are god, we do what we want.  We are denying the glory that belongs to God and He is offended.  But if the offended wants to pardon for whatever reason they want to, they can.  They can set conditions that need to be met, but they can also waive those conditions at any time, it is up to them.  Just is what they say it is.  This is why Jesus could forgive the sins of the adulteress, He was/is God, He was offended, and He pardoned.  This is why God could give a hot coal to Isaiah and his sins were forgiven.  This is why by the blood of Jesus the sins of all are forgiven.  These are all conditions set by the Judge.

So God could just snap His fingers and all sins be forgiven, why doesn’t He do that?  We can see the actions of God were never about scrubbing the past clean or holding account to the past.  Rather the present and future.  God doesn’t want your sins of the past forgiven, He wants you to repent, so there are no sins in the present or future.  This is why Amos 5 speaks of not even accepting offerings, or Isa 1 the Israelite’s are told to stop bringing meaningless offerings, and He says “Stop doing wrong”.  He wants to fix us, to fix the problem, so that in the present and future we stop.  As soon as we stop, the past is gone in God’s eyes, the problem is fixed.

So why did Jesus die for us then?  If all we had to do was stop sinning, couldn’t we just do that?  Well first to stop sinning is impossible.  But though with man things are impossible, with God all things are possible.  There are so many reasons why Jesus came and gave His life for us and died for us.

Now as humans we have guilt, and I believe that is why He gave them a scape goat, and eventually Jesus.  There is no magic in telling your sins to a goat, it isn’t transferring some magical for of sin from you to a goat.  God wants us to not feel guilty for the past, He wants us to put the past behind us.  Jesus tells us to yoke ourselves to Him so He can pull us, to cast our guilt on Him, let Him be the scape goat.  He wants us to feel free.  The truth is God doesn’t look at our past against us, so we shouldn’t either, and that is the truth that sets us free, guilt free. 

We also fear and respect God like the Israelite’s, and can’t stand before Him, so He gave them Abraham as a mediator and now Jesus as a High Priest and Mediator between us and God while we are on this earth.

We also as I said above, can’t not sin.  We need help, help from God.  After Jesus died, God gave us the Holy Spirit who helps us not sin.  The problem is, we always need His help, and we get distracted and forget to ask Him for it.  Like Peter, who was able to walk on water when Jesus was His focus, but the second he got distracted (no longer focused solely on Jesus), he started to sink.  The good news is Jesus reached His hand out and still helped Him.  Which shows that Jesus wants us to try our best to not sin, it is really the trying that He wants to see rather than the result of not sinning.  And giving glory to Him and having a relationship with Him in asking for His help. 

Believing in Jesus dying for your sin is humbling oneself, it is admitting we can’t do it, we need God’s help.  It is that belief that is where the ‘magic’ lies.  Not so much in the blood of Jesus that washes us, but the meaning of that blood.  The belief in a God who loves us so much that He would go through all of that for us. 

God created the world, He created the love a father has for his son.  He created the rituals and ceremonies of the Passover lamb.  Not because this was a requirement made by someone above Him, but He thought this is the best way to give us a glimpse of understanding of the immense love He has for us.  Jesus died for us.  And though I do mean that it was accomplished for our atonement, I also mean that it was for our benefit, in that it enables us to get a glimpse of an understanding of who God is and how amazing He is.  Like taking a 1 millisecond peek at one tiny corner of the most beautiful scenery you could imagine.  It was for our benefit so that we could not only get a glimpse of who He really is so we could glorify Him even more, but so that we could see the truth of how He always wanted us to live.  That He wants nothing more to have a relationship with us, He wants to help us, so that He can be glorified even more.  So that we aren’t bogged down with guilt of things we did in the past, that guilt that drags our souls down and then while down is taken advantage of.  It leads us to be selfish, uncontrolled, angry, angst, impatient, sad, hurt others.  But to be free, and in that the love of God will spring in us, and selflessness will come from that.  Self control, peace, patience, kindness, love, joy.  That was why He gave His life for us.  So that we can live life to the fullest, and in that He will get even more glory!

I am not saved from hell, and I am not motivated to save others from it as if hell is a place of eternal torment.  Rather I see the light, my eternity started already, I desire for God’s will now and through all of eternity, and my desire is for that love of God, that guilt free transformative love of His, will shine in me and other may know of God’s love for them now.  In fact I believe if you don’t know of His love and are held in captivity by guilt and by the great liar, you are already in hell.  It is my desire for you to be free now, not just escape eternal torment at a future time.  Free you from the torment now, and God will be even more glorified!

It isn’t just lack of guilt that allows this peace or freedom.  If you simply don’t care of what you have done in the past, I am certain you are still miserable.  The freedom comes from being valued, accepted and loved by your Creator.  When you see that you are loved and valued by your Creator despite your past, you have no guilt.  You realize the things you did were terrible, but God values you so much, He takes away that guilt.  I am saved from lies that tell me I am worthless, God doesn’t love me because of what I did, God can’t use me, lies that say I don’t have an eternal purpose.   I am saved from so much more than just “hell” or eternal torment in the future.  I am saved from guilt, despair and darkness!  That is what I mean when I say “I am saved!”.  That is what I desire for everyone.  BUT I also know that God desires this so much more than I could of everyone and it shouldn’t be a motivation for me.  I shouldn’t try to ‘save’ or convert anyone.  I just love my life the best I can honoring God with all my heart, strength, mind and soul and loving others as myself.  That love inside me will overflow and touch others and they will see God in me and they will come to know God and they will be saved from darkness, despair and guilt too.

God does call some to evangelism and missionaries, but as of now, I believe I am called to 1 Timothy 2:2, to live a quiet and peaceable life, godly and dignified in all ways.  This is good and pleases God, who wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.

When read read about the Thessalonians or the book of Peter or 1John, much of those books were written to comfort or reassure those churches from false teachers. They were being taught that Jesus had already returned and they missed it, or that Jesus wasn’t coming back at all. So the writers of those books were using the scriptures to reason with them showing them this was a false teaching and what the truth is, that Jesus has not come and when He does, all the wicked will be punished. Which isn’t a bad thing I guess, it can be of great encouragement to the flesh that what you believed is not wrong. But these people are supposed to have the Holy Spirit living IN them, the power of the God of the universe IN them. The transformative truth of God in them. Where they merely following god because God promised to bring them comfort? Eternal reward and comfort? I would hope that once the light was revealed to them, they would be desiring to worship God from now and forever regardless of their situation.

If you told me that the Jesus already came and I missed it, or that He was no longer coming and I interpreted the Bible wrong, I would not lose faith, I would not lose hope. My faith and hope is not in my interpretation of the Bible, it is in an unmovable God! And unchanging, ever loving, just, gracious, merciful, righteous God! My desire is to honor and worship Him starting now and through the rest of eternity no matter where I go or an placed or transported to. I do believe that that will be in heaven a place where like minded people are, from every tribe and tongue, a lace where God will receive all glory as is deserved. But even if I were to end up in hell, I would still praise God. I can’t not know the truth that God revealed to me, the light revealed cannot be covered or made dark.

This isn’t to say that I am any better than any from the church of Thessalonians or any churches of the NT that were persecuted and stood strong or those that were encouraged by Paul and others. I’m sure many of them were killed for their faith and though I hope I would be willing to do the same, I haven’t been placed in that situation and talk is cheap for me to say I could do the same. But I do believe God blessed me with such strong faith that is in Him, from the Holy Spirit, that I desire others to have such strong faith in Him, not just some words in a book, no matter how “Holy” that book may be. I am certain there are those who know the Bible way better than I do, and I know God wants it to be here in its current form and there are things I can learn from it, but the only thing in the Bible I see as prescriptive is the very words of God (or Jesus, who is God). All the rest of the Bible is descriptive words. There are things we can learn from it, but it isn’t a directive of how we need to live.

Paul was a great man, probably better than I will ever be. But even that, Paul was a creation of God, so anything good that Paul did was actually God doing. So if there was any awesomeness in Paul , it was actually the awesomeness of God. I don’t agree with Paul that we should be running a race for a reward, or that is is ok to suffer now because we will be rewarded for that suffering later. I believe that if it is God’s will for us to suffer, praise to God, I want His will. Even if it is His will for me to suffer for eternity, praise Him! I run the race, I do the best I can because that is all I can do. I am just dust, trying to have God help me, honor Him to the best that I can, knowing if there is anything I can do that is good, it is because He did that in me, and He deserves all the glory for that. He is eternal and I am dust, all I do is for His eternal glory.

But I am not speaking in Buddhist terms either. Where our entire existence go from a drop of water, to become the ocean and basically non-exist. I do believe God wants me to be me and wants to use me for His will, and wants to have a relationship with me. He doesn’t want me to become one with Him and get ‘absorbed’ back into Him. He values me as a separate individual and created me to have a full life which I can only have in Him. And that is where my joy comes from, my Creator has immeasurable love for me despite what I have done, and I desire for all to know this God I know. And this joy overflows in me so that others may see it in me, may see God in me, and come to know God and glorify Him!

 I don’t know if you are familiar with Dmitry Belyayev’s breeding experiment, so I can quickly summarize it.  He basically took the most docile looking foxes, had them breed, and too the most docile looking of the offspring, and breed them, and so on, for 40 years.  But even just after 20 years or 10 generations, he actually domesticated the silver fox.  He completely altered their DNA even.  The domesticated foxes had floppier ears, shorter muzzles, and a tail that rolled over the back.

This was done as I’m sure Dmitry was aware of Charles, Darwin’s study of The Variation of Animals and Plants Under Domestication 100 years earlier.

Basically, you have a ‘docile gene’ in 1 fox, however slight, lets just say 1 docile bit of code in the DNA.  When you breed them, the offspring makes more foxes ‘randomly’.  And of those offspring, there might be one that is shows being slightly more docile than the others.  This one might have 2 bits of ‘docile code’ in their DNA.  Then they mate and have offspring with a bunch of ‘random’ triats.  At some point, all offspring have 1 bit of docileness in their DNA code, but there is always a few with more, that are more docile.  So the most docile ones get selected to breed.  Now we have all offspring with 3 bits of ‘docile code’ (and a bunch of other offspring with ‘random’ traits) but the most docile of those bunch get selected again.  And so on, until all foxes end up with 50 bits of docile code, and it is no longer easy to choose “the most docile”.  So you now have this domesticated fox.  The DNA of this domesticated fox and all of its offspring have at least 50 bits of docile code (and some more).  But the original silver fox still is a group that has some with 0 bits and very few with 1 bit.  And of these original foxes, they keep being born with ‘random’ bits of code to help them survive.

Lets say in a second scenario, a breeder takes the most aggressive foxes and does the same experiment.  At the end you would now have a breed of aggressive foxes and docile foxes.

Instead of having a human select the traits they want carried on.  Lets say a giraffe.  The traits of a long neck could be selected by its environment as opposed to humans.  The zebra/horse/donkey (whatever a species a zebra evolved from) looking animal starts reaching for high up food, they have 1 code of DNA that encourages them to reach for food up high.  They breed and so on and so on, and now they have 50 genes of reaching high in trees.  Much like the silver fox that was domesticated that in just 10 generations actually altered the appearance of the ears, tail and head, the giraffe does the same thing.  The length of it’s neck is actually altered as well.  Until it no longer needs to grow, it can now reach high in the trees, the “selector” (the environment and not humans) can now, no longer tell the difference between the ones stretching or has no need to stretch, and that part of the code stops multiplying in the offspring.

This is basic evolution dumbed way down.  And at some point, the DNA becomes so different, that it can no longer mate with the ‘ancestors’.  So in this example, the final domesticated silver fox could no longer mate with the original silver fox’s offspring.  This was observed and written about by Darwin speaking about ring species.  On the Galapagos islands, the birds flew from island to island, with each having a different environment ‘selecting’ them.  At some point, the DNA was too different and they couldn’t mate with ones from other islands.

This has been observed and I would assume not argued by anyone.  Some Creationists refer to this as micro-evolution, and “agree” that it is a fact.  What many claim to say is impossible to prove (as to which I kind of agree) is that Macro-evolution (to which I do think is quite possible, but impossible to prove).  Macro-evolution is a made up term, but it refers to the fact that a monkey cannot change into a human.  But we have to look at this from a micro scale.  What do organisms need for life?  They need a means to acquire nutrients, to circulate them.  We humans use our bodies and brains to acquire nutrients, as do monkeys.  But trees, the use their roots and leaves.  If you have one organism that moves to a new location, random offspring occur, and that new environment selects traits to become optimum in that environment.  Some are carried/transported to a new environment against it’s will (even the wind blowing some seeds far from its origination) and some chose to move, and some chose to stay.  But variety occurs, and random traits are given and different species are the outcome.  The DNA doesn’t know that it is a monkey or a human.  There is no wall in the DNA that says, I can change up into this point, but then I can’t change anymore.  It is it’s own thing that has no awareness of the scope that it is in.  It won’t refuse to change, and will continue to change, until the ‘selector’ can no longer cause it to change.

So if this is all true, then why is there no missing link?  The “missing link” is the false non-existent state that Creationist claim to disprove evolution.  Since there is no ‘almost monkey, almost man’, then it couldn’t have occurred.  To explain that, we have to look at a continuum.  There are many continuums in the world we live in, but I like to use black and white, because it is very easy to understand opposites and we can observe the differences and explain them easily.  But with related to “the missing link”, I would also challenge anyone to find the missing link between a 20 year old and a 20.5 year old.  This is a continuum, a gradual change that is imperceptible.  But when looking at the difference between a 4 year old and a 40 year old, it is simple.   But we will use black and white.  There is a continuum of shades of gray in between that in imperceptible.  If you hold two shades right next to each other, and ask anyone to tell the difference, they can’t.  It isn’t until enough shades separate them, that you can slightly begin to tell the difference, and it is when looking at black and white, you can only see that next to each other, they are opposite.  So if you are adjusting the darkness of the white ever so slightly, when does it start becoming gray?  Or stop becoming white?  If you are looking at a window of 2 shades only, in a continuum of 1 trillion shades, do you ever know a “stopping” point?  If you were told you are the DNA, and you are not allowed to be black, only white, but you have to change, you have to move towards the darkness, you can’t remain the same, when do you stop? 

Just like an environment that demands change, and selects 1 shade darker every generation.  That DNA cannot see black and white (the big ‘picture’), it only sees one shade next to it.  It is only one who can see the big picture (the full spectrum/continuum) can now tell, hey, that was a money, and now it is a human.  That can’t change from white to black though, it has a ‘wall’ that prevents it.  Obviously white isn’t black and black cannot become white, it is TOO much of a change, it is a Macro-change.  Only Micro-changes can occur, just one shade at a time.  But we have trillions of different continuums with trillions of shades in each of them and that is where the trillions of species come from.  The one gene on it’s own continuum scale has no clue what the gene of another continuum scale is doing.  But they can interact with each other.  It is possible that only when certain spectrums align that interaction may occur.  And that one gene is fine doing its thing until 1 gene on another spectrum changes 1 shade closer to it, and it can now interact with that gene, where as it couldn’t before.  Like when a tail grows, there was no need for flesh or fur there, as there was nothing there.  But now that there is some veins and cartilage and muscle there, there has to be flesh that protects it.  Now we have multiple different continuums interacting with each other, but still all genes are completely unaware of the entire continuum they are on, and the fact that black is on one side and white is on the other.  They just keep changing shades over generations. 

What evolution is not is “random” in that you have a bunch of random genes trying random shades on a continuum until something works.  This is the argument behind the taking all the disassembled pieces of a Rolex in a shoebox and shaking it up a trillion times and out will come a complex Rolex.  No one believes in that level of random.  But random in that the offspring could have 1 or more very slightly different random attributes, that might get selected and keep getting selected.  Like if Dmitry found the foxes with ever so slightly larger eyes, and kept choosing the ones with slightly larger eyes.  The fact that one of the offspring has a slightly larger eye is very random and probably won’t do any good or bad for it.  BUT, if that is selected by Dmitry (or the environment) and this random trait keeps occurring and getting selected, the DNA is going to change and the foxes will eventually all have larger eyes.  And it is quite possible that this large eye random occurrence only randomly happens every 10 generations.  But if something (like the environment) is around long enough to keep choosing it, eventually, the species will end up with larger eyes….”randomly”.

This is why I believe in evolution (even Macro-evolution) as a Christian.  It isn’t as far fetched as some make it out to be, it isn’t illogical at all.  Though I do believe God did program His creation to evolve.  He gave it the ability to ‘randomly’ adapt to it’s surroundings.  But no, I do not believe in the big bang as a ‘random’ event, that everything came from nothing.  Except to say that the universe as we know it came from God, and everything we have came from nothing in that sense, and the big bang is a very plausible event that God could have triggered.   And at some point, God clearly placed living organisms on this earth.  And at some point humans became what we are now, and God liked that, and chose us to be the potential bearers of His image.

Though I will caveat all of that with the fact that I could be completely wrong.  I have no clue to the truth, as I wasn’t there.  But much more importantly, I don’t really care all that much of how (the inner workings, obviously God is the how) it happened?  More of the why it happened.   God created what He created to give Him glory as He deserves all glory!  Our amazing Creator created it all.  Just like the programmer who built the code for windows operating system.  But all that code does nothing until the ON button is pushed, and it begins to ‘build’ itself with ever improving complexity the further it boots up until it is booted up and the programmer can rest and rule over the operating system, interacting with it and controlling it to end up at the will of the programmer and for His glory.  Which is the why, and the importance of admitting we might not know how the universe was made to what it is today, but we have a role in it, a God given role to allow God to help us glorify Him in all we do!

The other reason I like to chose that black and white continuum, is because it has such a universal application.  Or to demonstrate that we only look at the shade that is next to us, we can unintentionally move into great darkness without even knowing it.  This is why God gave us advice about remaining in Him and to look at Him.  It is only when you look at white, that you can compare yourself and see that state of darkness you have in you.  But instead of trying to get one shade lighter, try to be white!

I believe Satan uses this imperceptibility to his advantage.  If you were in a building with no outside light, but (unknown to you) with dimmable lights with a very high resolutions (many shades in between) and you dimmed it 1 shade at a time over hours, when would you notice it is actually dimmed?  Your pupils would dilate to a maximum at some point and if you were able to compare tasks you have done in your past to the now state, you might begin to assume something is wrong.  But with no task to compare to the past (I was able to read fine but now I have trouble) you probably not be able to tell with certainty until 70% darker?  And even then, with nothing to compare it to, if gradual enough, you might forget what it looked like to look at your hand with great detail.  You might forget that you had a mole that you can no longer see, and if you can’t see it, did you ever have that mole?  I have to assume some massive gas-lighting and physiological effects would occur as well.  Especially if there where people planted in there that swear they could never read that sign, there is just a blank sign there, this is how well you read/see or can’t (in the dark) normally.  But the point being, you need a reference point far from where you are, to be able to know where you are. Satan is rarely going to turn the lights out on you, it is too obvious and noticeable.  What Satan will do, is slowly dim the lights at imperceptible levels, He is in the long game.  He doesn’t care how much you are furthering God’s kingdom and glorifying God today or 1 week from now, if he can only get you to do it less over time, it’s a win for him, whose whole purpose is to steal the more glory from God as possible.  But God gave us His Spirit, His word, other brothers in Christ, the Church.  So many ways to see His light through those things and strive for that white, ask Him to help you achieve that pureness, so you can give Him glory for helping you achieve it.  Paul doesn’t say, “look at the shade 2 or 5 or 10 paces towards whiteness”  He says, focus on what is pure (whiteness).  Because if you look to compare to others, you will never know how dark of a gray you are, or how dark gray the person is who you are looking towards.  And just because you are whiter than the one to your left, it doesn’t by any means mean you are pretty dark gray yourself.  And you also should not live in ignorance and never reflect on the shade that you are for you will always move to the darkness that way.  Some dark gray probably looked at something light gray at some point and thought how dark that light gray was, and now that light gray is light to them.  You must always focus on the white, the only pure, HOLY God!  And ask this amazing God to help you achieve purity, and know that you can only achieve it with His help, and they to give Him the glory when you do achieve it, for all glory belongs to Him!  And when you shine pure bright white light, the darker shades will see you and the light you emit and how bright it is.  And you can tell them, this light is no created by you, rather you are just a mirror reflecting this light from God to man, and they can also reflect this light and help others which glorifies God.

And one unfortunate caveat I must include, as this is the society we live in….My reference to white is biblical and a representation of purity, as in no darkness or blackness in it.  This has nothing to do with race what so ever.  The pigmentation or melanin levels in you skin is a biological trait, that has no bearing on your value as a human.  The white man is not ideal or superior in any way, or valued by God any more or less than one with darker or black skin.  All humans are valued greatly and the same by God.

Yes!  Is it good? No, but it is OK.  I saw yes because we know the standard, we have a goal, we are hoping to not sin.  Just like one who decides to diet has a goal of losing 100 lbs, or the athlete has a goal to run a 4 min mile.  Both are attainable, but they also both might take 10 years to achieve.  So should the athlete beat themselves up if they run a 9 min mile on day 1?  Of course not.  They have a goal and intent of getting their one day, but it’s OK to fail the standard you hope to achieve. 

When we sin, we are failing.  Is it OK? Yes!  God knows we are dust, we are frail humans, He created us as such.   I don’t think He wants perfect people (or He probably would have created us that way), but He does seem to enjoy growth.  Just like when you have a child.  You don’t expect them to write a doctoral dissertation when they are 1 month or year old.  Nor are you disappointed in them when they can’t even say more than 1 word.  You see them growing, and it brings you joy to watch them grow.  Is it OK to not be able to write essays at one week old?  Is it OK to sin as a Christian?

If you focus on how bad you are or how much you fail, you are only going to waste time and energy and health.  Focus on what is whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable–if anything is excellent or praiseworthy–think about such things.  The past is done, it cannot be changed, it no longer affects you.  If the runner beat themselves up for not running 4 min mile this time, they might not ever achieve it.  Some might even give up and say “well I just can’t do it”, or “I did even slower this time (failed greater) than I did last month”.   Growth can be like the stock market with ups and downs, but the important thing is the trend up.  Life can be the same way.  It is possible that you might not ever reach that 4 min mile goal.  You might only get to a 4:30 or 5 min mile (which is still pretty fast), but you might get to the 4 min mile or even faster if you train for it!  But if you beat yourself up and give up, I guarantee you won’t be able to run a 4 min mile, and probably won’t even be able to keep the 9 min mile you started at.  God wants to use you in the future, based off of the now, not your past!

We make sin and God into such a game almost, with all these rules.  Sin is not this terrible thing that cleaned off by following rules and making proclamations.  Sin is as simple as you stealing glory from God.  When you do what you think is best, you are saying that you are the god of your universe and you are able to make your own decisions and you should receive glory as this god.  But all glory belongs to God.  Taking glory from God not only attempts to defame God’s holiness, but it hurts us also.  God wants to fix that problem we created. 

When your child screws something up or breaks one of your rules, you don’t want, or require suffering of them to satisfy you.  But you can’t do nothing, there is a problem that needs fixed.  There are multiple ways of fixing things, but punishment is one of the tools used to fix things.  Sometimes revealing or explaining to them the gravity of their flaw is enough for them to change, or more importantly, want to change. 

I am sure God could stop a murderer’s arms from stabbing another person.  But what would that accomplish?  The man’s life is saved for now, but the evil heart and intent of the other is still there.  God wants to fix that heart.  And there are times that God does stop things from happening.  But for the most part, God uses the current situation ultimately for His glory and wants to transform that persons heart, not just stop that murder attempt. 

I don’t believe that God cannot violate our free will, or why the fact is that so many believe we have such a things free will, that God cannot control.  I do think that 99% of the time, God lets us keep our free will, just like 99% of the time, miracles don’t happen in a supernatural sense where God pauses physics as we understand it and amends/manipulates it.  But He does do that, and to me I have read verses where it appears that God controls people or takes away their free will.  But it seems to me that God doesn’t like to violate man’s free will, nor does God like to pause our physics.  I would guess that if He ‘intervened’ too much, He might as well just create robots.  But to me it seems He intervenes just enough to maximize His glory, and work through His creation, instead of around it.

It seems to me in the OT God would end sin fairly often, by killing the people, ending their ability to keep perverting His creation.  God speaks of punishing the people for the sins of them and their offspring for generations.  I don’t see that as God making the offspring suffer for the sins committed by the fathers.  But rather, if you sin, and keep sinning, and teach you kids to sin, it will always be punished.  And by punished, again, I don’t mean, making those suffer for acts committed or thoughts had.  Rather, to fix the problem of the sin.  Again in the OT, it seems the fix was to just end that person.  But we don’t see a lot of ending of people for their sin in the NT.  I would kind of say God ‘changed’ up His strategy, but it’s more than that.  Though in the NT, God no longer seems to end people, rather He wants to transform them.  End the sin by transforming them.

This was not an audible God called last min though.  The plan of transforming man was known since the Garden of Eden, when it is prophesized that God would crush the serpent.  It seems the entire 4000ish thousand years before Jesus, God was building up the song for that crescendo that was the death of Jesus on the cross.  It was God’s will to crush Jesus.  I think God wanted to show His love to man, and the greatest way was to enter His creation and serve it, put it first, live for it, and die for it, and for God’s glory.  The OT had to be the way it was to build up to what Jesus came to represent.  The lamb as a sacrifice couldn’t have come without the Passover, and that couldn’t have come without becoming slaves ect.

We know there is no magic when the priest would tell the goats the sins of the people so the scape goat ‘held’ the sins of the people and they could watch their sins walk away and disappear.  That is clearly for the benefit of man.  We like to “get things off our chest”.  So God provided a way for us to get things off our chest where it is remembered no more, separated as far as the east is from the west.  Jesus did this for us.  We also feel dirty from sin and bogged down by it, and cleansing language makes us feel clean.  Once you bathe, you are no longer concerned with the dirt going down the drain.  So why do we beat ourselves up about sin of the past?  The priest also were a mediator between God and man, and helper of man to achieve that goal of not sinning.  Jesus became that.  Once you are saved, once your eyes are opened to the err or your ways, we now are on that training mission, trying to achieve that goal of maybe one day not sinning.  Like to runner above who wants to run a 4 min mile, we are going to sin, and it is OK.  I do think that God has the powers to make us not sin, using supernatural means or controlling us, but I don’t think He wants to do that.  He wants us to grow, like children.  He doesn’t want that doctoral dissertation because He doesn’t need it.  There is nothing we can do or give that is new to Him, and everything we do know or share, came from Him!  He doesn’t need us to be perfect on day 1 of our transformation (or He would make us that way).  Just think of you own children and how God uses life to echo Himself to us.  Like marriage is a great representation of His love for us, the parent child relationship is a great one too!  Just like you would not be disappointed if you child came out of the womb dancing, God is not disappointed when we sin daily.  You might even be disappointed and feel unneeded if your child came out of the womb dancing and doing high level algebra.  You enjoy watching your child grow, and helping them do that.  I am not saying God needs us like a parent wants to feel needed by their children, but it seems to maximize the glory received by God, He wants us to grow and more importantly to help us grow and be a part of it.  And since God is a major part of it and everything we do we owe to Him, He should get the glory for it.    

I have heard this used many times by those who claim this is the main reason they are atheist.  Someone does some bad things for less than 100 years and is punished an eternity for it.  They see that is unfair, and unjust.

There is a parable of the unmerciful servant which has multiple meanings to it, but one I learned recently I thought was quite interesting.  The servant owes his master 10 thousand talents, and 1 single talent is about 20 years of wages.  So basically the servant owes 20 x 10,000 years, or 200,000 years.  Not even Methuselah lived anywhere close to that, which the reason those words are used is to basically say, impossible to pay back, or it will take an eternity to pay it back.   

I think I have said before that I don’t believe there will be anyone is heaven who doesn’t want to be there and hades will be full of people that want to be there.  So back to that parable.  When you take glory or credit from God (as to which all glory and credit belong), this is a sin, and occurs with all sins.  When you do anything against God’s will, you are saying I know better than you God, so I chose to do mine, not your will.  That is stealing glory, and exulting yourself above the High and Mighty God.  So when you steal that ‘tiny bit of glory’ (even one tiny sin) that ‘tiny’ bit is worth 10,000 talents, or an eternity of human wages.  So if you want to pay it back, God will allow you to….it is just going to take an eternity attempt to pay it back yourself.  Even insulting Him to attempt to say that you have the ability to pay it back is stealing of His glory.  I believe that is the unforgivable sin.  Which I believe the only unforgivable sin, is the unrepentant one, the one with no remorse for stealing the Glory of/from God.

The good news is that God offers to allow Him to cancel he debt (to forgive of us this theft), and the only requirement is to acknowledge that you can’t pay it back yourself, and be resentful that you stole the glory in the first place.  To realize how grave of a problem that was, and to desire to never do it again.  Almost to want hell, to desire to burn for an eternity, to realize how terrible of an act that one ‘tiny’ thing you did (and truthfully, the many large things you did).  In my mind, a Christian (on some level) doesn’t want to go to heaven to be with God for eternity, rather wants hell so God isn’t in the presence of such filth that we are.  I say on some level because on every other level, the transforming Holy Spirit inside us knows the forgiving power of God and how loved we are by God and wants nothing more than an eternity in the presence of God, knowing He forgave our debts in His mercy.

This is also why I believe that it is possible for those in hades to be saved.  Right after the parable of the rich man and Lazarus, this great divide, which no man can cross (of his own efforts, much like a man could never pay 10k talents of his own effort), God says, with man things are impossible, BUT with God all things are possible.  I do believe that with God, if or when man (even those in Hades) realizes the error of his ways and thanks God for the punishment they deserve, He will be rescued by God and brought to Heaven.  I think that all will stand before the judgement seat of God in the final days (it says Hades will spit out all that was in it) and they will be asked “Who is to pay this debt”  And if man wants to ask God to, they will be granted the Holy Spirit and accepted in Heaven, and if man wants to attempt to pay it off themselves or to continue to try to, God knows how long an eternity is and doesn’t want them to waste life doing that, and removes their life from them, consumes their lives in the eternal fire, removes from them the blessing of life, removes the Breath of God from them, strips them of the possibility to bear the image of God (the greatest blessing possible we are given), and consumes that potential for eternity, annihilates them.  Because He wants an eternity with those who want Him as their King, and it doesn’t benefit Him to have anyone suffer eternally.  The entire reason for this life and after it Hades, is to fix that problem.  That is what punishment is for, fixing the problem.  There is no more chances after judgment day, all of first creation occurred to attempt to fix that problem and the second creation will not have that problem.

To those who may be too prideful to accept God’s help, to want to do it on their own, who would prefer suffering with pride over humility.  I don’t think the bad part of Hades will be the fire or physical pain inflicted.  Or pain of their soul however pain will work when we don’t have bodies.  I am not sure if fire is real or metaphorical.  But real pain and suffering will be when you realize you are alone, you are not loved or accepted unconditionally by anyone and that void of despair has to be worse than anything.  People go through fires, they get burn and it hurts, but life for them goes on even in extreme pain, pain is bearable or possible to continue living life.  You can be distracted from that pain, you can enjoy things and blessings of God in the midst of pain.  But what cannot be escaped is despair.  So many people cannot escape despair, so much so that they kill themselves in attempt to end it.  You could offer the greatest food or most awestruck view or the strongest drug high or anything to someone in despair, and they will always chose to kill themselves.  The ONLY thing that pulls someone back from the pit of despair, that they will chose to continue to live on, is HOPE.  But in hell, there is no hope, it is full of despair and it is unending, you can’t even kill yourself to rid of it.  That has to be 10,000 times worse than the pain of a fire.  I am not sure if there is going to be any hope or glimpse of hope in hell.  It is void of the presence of God or the love of God through the people of God.  That could be why eternal hell is a certain thing for those who die now and go to Hades.  But I think it might be possible for people to have memories, to remember the hope they heard about on earth that they pridefully refused.  I don’t know the answer, but the good news is God is in control and is loving, merciful, righteous, just, and sovereign.  I don’t need to have the answers, but I am just to live my life loving God first and most and others more than myself.  Attempting to share the blessings of God with others for His glory, and giving thanks for those blessings, for in all things to God belongs the glory!