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!