This will be one of my shorter posts, as I do not have the answer to it and I hope anyone who does have advice or wisdom to share is able to comment or email me and let me know their thoughts. But until I have answers, I will continue to serve God to the best of my ability with His help and give Him the glory for all things.

Does Jesus give advice to the flesh rather than the spirit?  Or to the unsaved and not the saved?  Jesus tells many parables that seem to have advice that is only beneficial to the unsaved, to those without the transforming Holy Spirit inside them.  

For example when Jesus speaks the many parables of the master returning at an unknown hour, so the servant is to always be prepared.  It is almost like the servant is living under the motivation of being caught, and never wanted to get caught doing the wrong thing, so they live a life motivated by fear and obedience rather than a transformed heart.  Shouldn’t the servant with a transformed heart want the will of the master and the success of the master’s business be their motivation?  The have the same mind (being transformed) of the master, and just as the master is in the “business” of sharing the love of God with the world, the servant wants the same.  The servant doesn’t care if the master is coming back today or after they die, they aren’t living to appease the master potential wrath of not doing the masters work, rather they want to help in the masters work.

If you were a boss and you had an employee that did everything the job description required perfectly (though clearly we can’t, but even if we could) but their heart wasn’t there.  They only did the job description because they wanted the raise or they wanted to take over your job when you left or any selfish ambition.  And at the end of the day, they would ask you “is there anything else you need before I leave” and in their heart, they said “man I hope this guy says nothing needs done and I can go home, I hate this job”.  Or, you had an employee who messed up fairly often, and didn’t complete al items on the job description.  But at the end of the day, he would also ask “is there anything else you need before I leave”.  And in their heart, they were thinking “I really want this business to succeed, the boss is a great leader and this business is helping so many people, I am so lucky to have the opportunity to work for him, I hope he says there is more work needed so I can have the honor of helping him more”.  Which employee would you rather have?

Does the latter servant need a reminder that the boss could come back at any time?  Or does the former need that reminder?  Why does Jesus seem to speak advice to the untransformed?  I hate to denounce the wisdom of Jesus, but doesn’t this seem like needless advice to those with the Holy Spirit transforming them?  Why give advice to those who don’t have the Spirit?  Is it help they need, and will advice help them live well?  This almost seems like an advocate of works based salvation/advice?  Once we are saved, can we ignore this advice or does it have any benefit for us?

Or the parable of sitting at the dinner table.  We are told not to sit at the seat of honor, rather sit at the lowest seat.  That is advice I can understand.  But then further, we are told because the one who takes the highest seat will be made a fool in front of others and placed lower, and the one who seats lowly will be exulted in front of others.   This is wise advice to the worldly or unsaved.  But shouldn’t we want to sit at the lowest because we genuinely believe that God created us all of great value equal to another and showed us one way to show the love of God is to not only treat others as valued equals, rather higher than ourselves.  The motivation for sitting low should be to love others and have them valued over us, not to be exulted in front of others and placed higher?

I don’t know the answer to these, but I am just sharing some thoughts I have that I can’t figure out.  Why does Jesus seemingly give us fleshly advice or advice to those who haven’t been transformed by the Holy Spirit? I am aware that the God I call King and choose to serve is the One I am kind of questioning here. I know Jacob was blessed when he decided to wrestle with God, and I guess I am doing the same. I am not doing it for a blessing though, just to know God more, which I guess would be a blessing. I assure you my faith is not shaken or weakened in any way because I don’t have the answers, and I might not ever on this earth.

In the words of a singer Danny Gokey. “Keep it real simple….Love God and love people”. The two greatest commandments.

Unfortunately there are so many unnecessary and complex conditions and formulas of what makes a Christian or how they should act, who gets into heaven, who goes to hell, what beliefs one must ascribe to, what words one must say ect. when it is (and should be) so much simpler).  The sad things is none of the above questions/statements are even about God, they are about us.  How did becoming Christians have to become about us?  The very essence of Christianity is about God, because everything came from God.  So I need to add extreme caution when I say next only to be understood in full context, but all you need to do is want God.  No, I am not saying by any stretch of the imagination that anyone is saved by their own deeds or effort.  But basically, if you want God to be your God, your King, that is really all a Christian is.  The literal root of the word is to be a disciple of Jesus, and Jesus wanted nothing more than God to be rightly where He is as God and King of existence/the universe.

I guess the best analogy I can think of would be to imagine an island or a planet (some isolated place with no possible way of escaping from within or of our own efforts or actions).  But God can pluck us out at any time, but out of respect for His nature and holiness, He only decides to pluck out those who acknowledge that He is the only salvation.  Not just the only salvation from this island of misery, but more importantly acknowledge the truth of who God is, and wanting His will above all else.  Like a man with a blindfold on who is strapped to a bed and has earphones on (senses basically removed).  The world still exist around you, even it you can’t sense it, it is still there, that is the truth, whether you can perceive it, sense it, acknowledge it, like it, or want it.  It is still there. Though we have 5 senses to perceive our physical world, we have our spirit and the Holy Spirit to enable us to perceive the truth of God.  I can’t explain the ‘certainty’ I feel (some may refer to this feeling as faith) of the truth of God any other way than the Spirit.

But the truths of God aren’t conditional or circumstantial.  So even if I don’t end up in heaven, the truth of who God is, is still true.  Or even if I end up in eternal torment, the truth of God still is, and I will praise Him for who He is forever and always.  Jesus did say that He was the Truth.

So back to this island of misery.  If God reveals to my spirit His truth, and I understand it as such and want His will, He will pluck me off of this island.  Though even if He didn’t, I still can’t unknow the truth I know of Him.  He is good, loving, merciful, and just.  Myself, and every human choses to be on this island by rejecting His will and He would be just banishing me from existence or doing whatever He wants.  The Potter can rightly do whatever they want to the clay, and He is still the Potter.  That is a truth of the One who molds the clay.  What He decides to do with the clay has no effect on that title.  But, thankfully we have a loving, just, merciful, and good creator, who not only blessed us with life and the honor to glorify Him with that life and those blessings, but who has no malice towards those who reject Him and the truth of who He is.  There is no action or thought that you can do that can lose the love of God for you and the second you turn to Him, you are reconciled.  He will pluck you from that island of misery (which I can’t think of any worse place to be and would equate it to hell), and welcome you with open arms into His kingdom.

Imagine God built a bridge to cross from misery island to God’s Kingdom, because He wanted those who believed in Him to come and live in His Kingdom.  Well, God did build that bridge, and He called it Jesus.  But Jesus was So much more than just that bridge, He was also the Holy Spirit coming to us, to speak and reveal the truth of who He is to our spirits.  This is again, why Jesus refers to Himself as the Truth.  He told us the truth of who God is, and to anyone who acknowledges that and desires for God to be their King, He built a bridge for them to cross over.  Now all analogies have their flaws, and for this one I generally don’t like to use this analogy as it could convey that it is some effort of mine (crossing the bridge) that get me in His Kingdom.  It could also lead one to almost worship the bridge the savior that rescued them from misery.  Now if I am blindfolded, and someone takes of my blindfold and allows me to see the most beautiful artwork ever, will I worship the one who removed the blindfold, or the artist?  Don’t get me wrong, I would be very grateful of the one who removed it, but it is the Artist I would worship.

Now it gets kind of tricky that the Artist is the same One who removed the blindfold.  The One who removed the blindfold is the best representation or image of the Artist and would give the Artist the greatest glory in demonstrating the level of love for us that we can attempt to fathom or perceive, and that is why it was done that way.  In fact, the entire history of our human existence was orchestrated for this very crescendo that occurs the moment the bridge was built/opened that allowed us to inhabit the Kingdom of God.

The beautiful part, is how different it is from anything of this world.  Since there is nothing you can do to earn it, there is also nothing you could do or could have done that can lose it.  But I don’t even like to refer to it as an objective thing.  God loves you, He wants what is best for you, He wants to bless you, and the rest of His creation through you.  And no matter what you have done in the past, no matter how many times you have rejected His will, He only sees the future, a present of you choosing Him now, and the blessed future you will have through Him due to that choice.

If a billionaire gives you a few million and you brag about having a million to all those who don’t have that much, are you really impressing the billionaire?  Do you think you can compart to the billionaire with your measly millions?  It wasn’t of your effort or merit you got that million.  I would say the same to anyone who is a ‘godly’ person or a ‘good Christian’, or anyone who simply knows the truth of God.  The only reason you know anything is because God chose for you to know it.

Those who work hard and have earthly success, was that from their hard work?  Should they receive any credit?  No, no one other than God deserves any credit or glory for anything!  What if that born paraplegic wanted to work just as hard but couldn’t?  Are they of any less value?  What if that guy in prison was not raised by good parents, that instilled these values and told them to work hard.  Is that person of any less value?  Did that success person ‘earn’ those good parents?  Or the finances to help them out, to admit them to good education, surround them with other successful people?  We used to say it take a village to raise a child and a it does, a village of God fearing people.  Now we have even taken that credit away from them and take all the credit of our own merit.  But again, who are you going to impress?  Do you really think the God who gave you those blessings is impressed by what you have achieved?  Who gave you that mental ability or that drive to be successful?  Can you attain the status of god?  It isn’t that God is an egomaniac or a narcissist and needs attention or praise to feel good.  It is literally where all glory belongs though.  Everything you have is because of God and that is why God deserves all glory.  It would be dishonest of God to give anyone glory for anything.  Just like the billionaire couldn’t honestly praise the millionaire for their money.  Even if the millionaire become a billionaire, it wasn’t from nothing, they started with a million.  And even if they could start form nothing, they had health to help them work hard or brains to outsmart, and life to even live.   You can’t impress or out-do God, nor can any achievement you have be attributed to your efforts.

 I don’t believe that free will is an unbreakable rule by God, nor do I see any verses that support any such commonly believed statement.  I see where God hardened the heart of Pharaoh and humbled the heart of Nebuchadnezzar.  I think God mostly like to allow us to have free will, because it seems it would bring more glory to Him for us to have it.  But just like the laws of physics and matter are generally followed by God most of the time, He clearly manipulates and outright violates them.  I think many athiest (rightly so) use the argument of the the tyrant that says, do this or die.  You don’t really have a choice, that is just the illusion of free will.  Some may ask if God desires everyone to be in heaven, then why not ‘manipulate’ the free will to get them there like He clearly does at times.  Or the only ones that will be in heaven are those who God choses, so how can God chose to bring everyone?  The Bible says God wants none to perish. For one, we can’t know the mind of God, and who is the clay to question the potter?  But I don’t desire God to be my King to save me, I desire His will because He deserves all glory, and my spirit knows that truth.

So why does God let some God to hell?   That is a question of someone who is trying to ‘prove God wrong’, not of one who wants to know God.  The only way I can answer that questions is to say that the Creator of everything, knows you, and created you to do amazing things with His help and blessings/gifts, despite the things you have done or amount of times you rejected Him or attempted to steal glory from Him.  If you stopped distracting yourself with the things of this world and began to reflect on yourself, and who you are, if you were stripped of your status, wealth, health, family, friends, talents, intelligence (whatever it is that you define yourself by) who would you be, what would be your value, what is the purpose of living.   You would begin to see the emptiness of this world, how you assign value to temporary things that could be removed and you would feel as if you have no value.  And know that you are still more than valued by that Creator who you rejected, you are a child of God, no matter what, you are loved and highly valued!  Would you want to know that God and have a relationship with Him?  If the answer is yes, then you will be transformed with an eternal joy that is indescribable.  You will be given life.  You will be given life eternally, eternal purpose to glorify and eternal God.  And then you can understand either the answer to that question, or understand how you don’t need to know the answer to that question.  You can realize that you were in hell, you had no purpose, you had no life, you were just dust, a vapor, here today, gone tomorrow, with so much potential value.

It is funny how this is titled simple, yet it becomes so complex I could probably write a book about it.  I don’t really want to write a book about it because unfortunately people could treat this like a new religion like the Mormons.  I would be the new Joseph Smith and this book would be the ‘golden book of revelation from God’ that people would follow and worship me or hold me to high esteem?  I exist for the glory of our Creator.  If God uses me to open the eyes of people, praise Him for that.  Everything I said can easily be understood to have been said in the Bible.  If you can see the ‘wisdom’ of my words in the Bible, then internalize that, allow the Spirit to guide you to know truths of God through the Bible.  But much more importantly than knowing things, live them. 

Give God the glory in all you do and desire His will above all else.  Again, very simple.

Many Christians repeat that statement, and I would guess that it is probably because of some of the statements Paul makes through the NT.  Like Rom 8:18 or 2 Tim 4:7.  But I don’t even think Paul would agree with how people use his words.  There are better things to come, and the suffering here is nothing compared to the glory that is to come, those are truths. BUT, I don’t think they were meant to be taken as a motivation, rather a truth spoken. 

Are we really supposed to suffer here, but it is ok, because heaven will be a reward?  Is that really supposed to be our motivation, an eternal reward? 

I will start off first by saying that the things I say are easier said than done, the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak, I am by no means perfect.  But when I am spending time with God, I feel as if I could walk on water, as if I am in heaven now, and there is a spiritual clarify I feel I have, and the ‘truths’ of the flesh don’t make any sense.  I am not sure why the church focuses on the flesh so much like with statements like that.   So my below statement I feel is something we should strive for and preach, and quit preaching the motivations of the flesh and using scriptures to back that up.

But my reward is for God to receive glory.  All glory/credit belongs to God.  Nothing good is possible without God, it all came from God, and any time anyone wants to give any credit/glory, it belongs to God.  To give God glory is the only reason we do anything.  We exist to bless the world with the gifts God gave us.  He blesses the world through us, and we praise Him and others who are blessed through us praise Him too.

To me, there is no “better things to come”, I am in heaven now, or that is where I rest when I spend time with God.  The only difference to me between now and after my flesh passes, is that I won’t get distracted in heaven, where as here, I get distracted.  This is with regards to Peter, who was looking at Jesus, was able to walk on water, but when the waves and wind distracted him, he began to sink. 

Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah were about as ‘earthly’ painful as it gets, they were in fire.  But they were also with God.  With God, our spirit is whole, there is no such thing as suffering.  When Peter walked on water, he was focused on God. 

What is a curse?  It is used almost magically like the words one speaks can negatively affect the one with whom they speak it to.  There is no such thing as magical curses.  I could believe that one could request demonic assistance, and if God allows, that person may feel the ‘curse’ with which it was spoken about.  But the truth of a curse is very simple, it is the opposite of a blessing.

What is a blessing?  This is also not some magical words spoken that positively affects the one is is spoken about.  The only blessing is from Num 6:24-26.  So a curse is the opposite.  To have the Lord not keep you safe, be stingy and merciless towards you, turn His face away from you and let you do your own thing, which will result in hate, restlessness and war. 

I don’t believe there was a “curse” after the fall of man, it don’t think God changed His creation so that thorns now appeared, the ground gave up less food, the sun got any hotter, lions or mosquitoes or wasps or locust or carnivores appeared, and flesh became a finite thing, or child bearing had biologically changed.  These are all realities, much like if you tried to walk on water you would drown, or if you tried to walk in fire, you would burn.  But this is a reality, not a curse/magical words of God.  I believe that just like Azariah, who was able to stand in the fire unharmed and in no pain, and as Peter was able to walk on water, childbirth could have been painless, and thorns wouldn’t bother us and food would have been plentiful and lions would not eat us….if/when we were in the presence of God.  But when man sinned and rejected God, we were absolutely under a curse, and not because God turned His face on us, rather because we turned our face on Him.  So without the presence of God, not lions try to eat us, child bearing is painful, fire hurts us ect.  The curse isn’t some magic change to God’s creation, rather a truth realized.

But if we return to God, acknowledge His supremacy, ask forgiveness, repent, be atoned by the blood of Christ, our spirit is blessed, we are in heaven.  I still get distracted and screw up and sadly at the time of doing it, I don’t mind or I don’t realize, but in hindsight, it is realized as such a wretched  thing I have done.  And in heaven I won’t have moments of screw ups, and that will be great, because God won’t be robbed of glory ever, where as I do that from time to time while on earth when I get distracted and my gaze wonders from God’s face.

But I don’t want to go to heaven now, I am not waiting for this amazing prize.  Calling what happens to my flesh and mind here as suffering, but saying it is ok because it will get better or I will get a reward.  I am in heaven now, I realize who God is and He is my only rest, if only I wouldn’t get distracted. 

God number one priority is not for us to be perfect or sanctified.  If it was, He could easily achieve that and we would be in heaven now being that.  God wants us here on earth for a greater reason.   And I will gladly try to glorify Him in all I do while here, which is the exact same thing I will do in heaven (with no failures there).  But if He has you here now for a reason, why/how could anyone want to be anywhere else?  I want to be here on earth more than in heaven, because this is where God wants me, and I want to do His will.  Even though I would be able to do it more perfectly in heaven, He has me here for a reason, and I thank Him and glorify Him for that.

I have heard it said that how difficult it would be to invest so much of your live into good (biblical things even), and to never see any fruit come from that.  If you invested 20 years of your time into discipling a person only to have that person turn from the faith or even betray you.  First of all, to call that 20 years “your time” is incorrect, but I would say that even expecting to see fruit of your labor in a way you would desire is where you went wrong.  If you live your life for Christ live your live how Jesus wants us to/showed us to, you would be living your life to honor the Father and nothing more.  I understand that at the moment of betrayal, you wouldn’t shout for joy, but it shouldn’t crush you either and you shouldn’t be hurt from “wasting 20 years of your life”.  If over those past 20 years, you did what you did in attempt to honor God, then I would say it was 20 years that couldn’t have been better spent.

God is sovereign, He can and will accomplish anything and everything He desires, and He doesn’t need us to get it done.  It is a great privilege and a pleasure that He wants to use us, and He gave us gifts and blessings to share with the world to see His will done.  But we need to stop living for outcomes, or wanting to see fruit.  Fruit cannot be grown through effort or will, it needs time and the right nutrients.  When you deny yourself, your desire for outcome, and take up your cross, live a life Jesus demonstrated, strive to honor God in all you do, that is the fruit.  God being glorified is the fruit.

This I believe is the main danger of evangelism and apologetics and ‘the great commission’.  It has great intentions, even biblically motivated reasons behind it, but they create a false goal or a desired outcome.  We need to quite equating ourselves to Paul.  He was a great man of God, I could assure you that he wouldn’t want any glory for his life or actions, he wouldn’t want us to be like him.  If God personally calls you, hallelujah!  Go, and preach, but if God doesn’t, then you keep trying to glorify Him in where He has you.  Don’t live exhaust yourself for outcomes, or endure suffering and keep telling yourself “it will be worth it in heaven”.   If you have the Holy Spirit inside you, you are in heaven now, this is as good as it gets!  You are exactly where God wants you to be right now, and you have the opportunity to be doing exactly what He wants you to be doing right now.  There is blessing, there spirit is so blessed and in heaven, who cares if the flesh is suffering.  Not because the suffering is worth it for a reward, but because the flesh is a temporary (but necessary blessing of God), and our spirit can have rest in Him NOW, not after our flesh expires.

The weak scaffolding that has become modern Christian doctrine, instead of the foundation of God in truth.

I read an article about Rhett and Link, who were well known in the Christian community growing up, the probably still know the Bible better than I do.  The article was about them “falling away from the faith”.  There have been renowned apologist who have attempted to challenge them and their views using the ‘almighty’ Word of God, and they (Rhett and Link) are able to refute it all too often.  This is actually part of the reason for their falling away.  They just couldn’t reconcile with the mighty building of doctrine the Christians created and when challenged, it topples, leaving them with a mess.  Ask yourself, what parcel of knowledge is mandatory for a Christian to believe?  If one challenges that, you might become defensive, wanting to keep up your weak scaffolding, but when someone hits it hard enough, you begin to wonder yourself and it all collapses.  What someone told you Jesus wasn’t the Son of God, and they had proof of this?  I would guess you wouldn’t believe their proof, and your proof is the Bible says so.  But what if they challenge the Bible?  Your answer is the Bible says it is right?  What if they just challenged a few things of ‘standard’ doctrine?  What if they challenged evolution?  Or the possibility that the flood was not global?  What if they ask how God could allow or command the killing of innocent children and women?  I have seen so many apologetic videos and sermons defending those various topics.  But why do we need to defend them?  If those things are proven to be not what we thought, is it all a lie?  Like one domino can topple the entire building?  There really doesn’t seem to be a foundation, or it doesn’t sound to me like a firm foundation. 

As much as these two and many more “fallen Christians” knew, ( which is probably way more than me about the Bible), I highly doubt the truth of God was known by them.  They even claim to be agnostics now, which believe in a higher power of sorts, but aren’t sure.  If you look at true Christianity, if you read about the character of God in the Bible, Christianity is actually the most common sense, logical choice.  If you are prideful, and want credit for anything, then it can be the most difficult choice, but the best of all religions if you break it down.  There is a higher power, who loves you unconditionaly

This is the amazing thing that God showed us in Jesus, the Author of love, and truth.  Unconditional love.  God has this towards us.  There is nothing we can do, no condition we can attain, that He will not love us.  No action of your past, gives God a negative bias towards you, nor will sway His mind to do something negative or to spite you.  Every second you live is love coming from Him.  Many Christians know this, but what I feel often forget is that THIS God lives inside us.  We have that unconditional love in us too!  This isn’t just love towards man, which I am sure most Christians would at least claim to attempt or desire.  But unconditional love towards God!  We praise God so often in songs, the Bible is filled with praises, “worthy is the lamb who was slain”, “worthy is the one who spread the seas”, “thanks be to God who protects us”.  And praise is good, don’t get me wrong, but God deserves all praise always.  One of my favorite passages from Job “the Lord gives and takes, blessed be the Lord”, or “Our God can save us, BUT even if He doesn’t, we worship Him”.  These are amazing verses of unconditional love and faith in God.  I believe we too often reflect on the true things of God, like sending His Son Jesus to die for us, but then I think we forget and almost make that a conditional statement, that we love Him because He did this.  What if God didn’t send Jesus, do you still love Him?  What if God sent you to hell, would you still love Him? 

My answer would be yes, because one, my love isn’t conditional, my unconditional loves comes from the author of unconditional love, but I also can’t deny the truth.  My foundation is in God, not some doctrine or condition or promise of God but who He is, which never changes.  If you were to challenge if Jesus really was a man, or really died or was sinless or whatever you want.  I wouldn’t have to frantically search through the scriptures to come up with a defense, lest my scaffold fall. I know that before Jesus came, God loved us, that one event, was I believe God’s greatest way to show us His love. It was the culmination of the entire OT coming to climax at that point, a beautiful crescendo at the middle of an amazing symphony that is human existence.  But the tallest person in the world is still that, even if they are sitting and are never measured.  The truth doesn’t change from different circumstances, it just is.  What if the flood wasn’t real or global?  How could that really shake you faith if it wasn’t?  I don’t know how I came to faith that I have, I would have to answer the Holy Spirit in me, and I am sure the Bible played a role in it, but the conditions in the Bible don’t have to be true for me to have the faith I have in God.  If you learn 1+1=2, and then someone discredits the author of that textbook, I can’t unknow that truth, it just is.  There is a Creator, who created all things for His glory, who created us, to have Him help us glorify Him, who doesn’t have a single negative thought about us because of our past, who loves us, wants to help us.  I don’t believe anyone who knows that, could unknow that, or fall away from that.  Jesus was an incredibly orchestrated masterpiece (from Genesis to the Gospels) to show us the truths of God that we never could understand, to show us the love of God and how He will go to the greatest length possible to show us this love, to show us how treasured He sees each and every one of us and how we can live for His purpose.  There is not a single Bible verse I think I quoted there, but it has the truth and the gospel right there.  This is the truth we need to build our foundation on, not some doctrine or passages.  Things that continue to be true, because they are.

But if you think you have accomplished anything of your own means, I can understand you desire to own that glory.  But I would have to ask you, who gave you that strength to achieve that?  The ability to go to the gym?  Being born in a country that has gyms?  Having a family or government that provided food for you?  Who gave you that strong heart beat, and lungs?  Are you any better than the one who wasn’t born in a country like yours?  One who is war raved, who doesn’t have parents or a government to provide for them.  When you really look at what you have, and you realize you didn’t actually do anything yourself and all glory belongs to God, it is slightly easier to lay down that pride and acknowledge His sovereignty. 

But apart from pride, who wants to belong to a religion that life is a curse, one that the entire purpose is to non-exist, and every time you screw up, don’t achieve non-existence, you must suffer worse than the last.  Or to believe there is no reason to exist at all?  All our achievements will fade, time will forget you, nothing you do will last, you’re a vapor, why try anything, even ‘having fun’ because life is all you have and it’s gone, but you feel empty after everything you try, nothing fulfills you. 

Or a religion that acknowledges you are dust apart from God, that no one is better or worse than you, all that you have is from Him and is to be used to give back to Him, and bless those around you which will also give back to Him.  And even when you screw up and take glory that doesn’t belong to you, that God doesn’t hold it against you.  You started your eternity now, and look forward to more eternity being completely fulfilled and loving only to contribute to the eternal God, because for now, we are but dust. Yet He still loves us!

This is a quote from the book of Judges, but seems to ring true no matter what time epoch we are in.  And at face value, isn’t exactly a bad thing.   There are those (the great minority) who in the words of Alfred “just wanna watch the world burn”.  There are your serial killers, those who must have had something wrong in their upbringing, and they are just void of all love, and want the rest of the world to suffer as they feel they have.  But that is the minority.  Many actually want world peace, and would see that quote above as a potentially good thing (as long it was want they wanted, and not others).  Hitler even wanted world peace.  He wanted the optimum race to be living and their to be peace among the Aryans left.  Obviously he went about achieving it in a horrendous way, and would probably go to the same lengths to maintain it if it was ever achieved.  So doing what is right in your own eyes can be a horrendous thing, even if the want or the end goal would be agreed by all that it would be a great thing.

The political right or left isn’t evil, they simply want what is right in their own eyes. The problem is, when man wants control so they can attempt to influence what they see as right done, rather than allow God to be in control and want His will done.

One could wager that the apostle Paul was a great man for God, converted thousands of folks, and the same could be said about the late Billy Graham or Ravi Zacharias.  But just think of all those they changed in the last 20-40 years of their life, how much more they could have done if they started 20 years earlier, or lived 50 year more?  I would say they wouldn’t have achieved anything different, because they are not in control.  But there is One who is sovereign, who could have allowed them to do these things, so why didn’t He?  If such greatness could have been doubled, then why not?

Could it be because God doesn’t need us?  He doesn’t need us to be at a specific level to get done what He wants done.  He can and will get it done regardless of how great or little we do.  Then one could ask (with the same mindset of Paul in Romans: “should we sin more to allow more grace? May it never be!”) should we all just and do nothing because God doesn’t need us?  May it never be!  Rather we should instead have the mindset of failing.  In our society, we are brought up to set goal and achieve them, then set new goals.  The point being, if you know you could never achieve something, why try?  We tell folks to shoot for the moon, and we don’t expect them to achieve it, but still hope to, and try to with the hopes of potentially achieving them.  But we never shoot for the moon, to fail.  Is that what God wants though?

We shouldn’t act expecting a result, rather act because it brings glory to God.  When we are not doing right in our own eyes, not trying to achieve what we think is good (even if it is something we want that is Biblical and aligns with the Bible or God’s commands), but just act.  Excepting to fail even, not seeing and” fruit of your labor”.  Which I think that is a terrible statement that proves my point that we only act to get things, or expect a result.  Some say, plant seeds, and hopefully one day fruit will come of it, even if you don’t see it.  I would say sowing the seeds IS the fruit.  Planting seeds is what God commands, it’s what we can’t not do, it is the overflowing fountain of love that has filled us up that overflows from us, and that is what glorifies God.  The fruit or the outcome of our labor is that God is glorified through us, that’s it.  We shouldn’t focus or desire ANY outcome, let alone one that we desire, a desire of our own eyes, even if that desire is “godly”.  Knowing that we will fail, but doing it anyways I think is a great demonstration of faith.  One is not doing something to achieve anything, other than know that glory is returning from where it came.  So to answer the question above “should we just not do anything because God is sovereign and what will be done will be done anyway”.  May it never be!  We do what we do, to give Him glory, not so things will be done, but those things would have been done anyway.  If you want to use this as an excuse to do nothing, I would doubt you fully understand the love of God and our purpose to glorify Him in all as all things belong to Him. 

But this is to encourage those who feel as they have failed, or they are not where the want to be.  You are always exactly where you need to be!  God does not look at our past in a negative bias.  If you are right now, not doing what you think you should be doing, then do it!  Or don’t do it.  Don’t beat yourself up because you are not evangelizing to every person you interact with as you see so and so do (the better Christian).  There is no comparison between man, we are all dust apart from God, and God is sovereign and will do what needs done regardless of what you do.  So don’t worry about not being somewhere.   A person who has never been to the gym cannot beat themselves up over not being able to bench 500 lbs.  There are not there yet.  If God wanted you to lift that, you would regardless of how hard you worked out or for how long.  You are right where He wants you, and that is trying to honor Him in all you do.  Try. But don’t try because you hope to achieve, try because He wants you to, and He wants to help you, even it if it to help you fail.  I know God helps us succeed many times too, but I also believe He helps us ‘fail’.  Because failure in our eyes might be exactly what He wants.

How easy is it to do something and succeed, like positive re-enforcement.  So we see the success and keep on.  But difficult is it to try something and fail, but to keep at it, knowing God is sovereign in all and what His will is will be done regardless of what we do.  That takes faith to do a difficult thing that God calls us to do, and we feel it succeed.  And greater faith to do something we can’t see any effect of at all, but to keep doing it.  Like Thomas feeling the scars of Jesus and believing, and being told greater faith in those who believe but can’t see…the effects.

Why did God create man?  Was it simply to follow some rules?  Do we exist to not do specific things.  If you have read my other posts, you know I believe God created man to honor Him like everything God created.  So we have to look deeper into how we could honor Him.  Do we really honor Him by not doing bad things?  Jesus is often touted as the only perfect human to ever live, and it seems people think it is good to follow that perfect example.  Many think God wants us to simply not do bad things like Jesus did perfectly, but we can’t, but Jesus did for us, so we are ‘off the hook’.  Though I think much of that has truth to it, it seems a little shallow to me.  That would equate the perfect Jesus to nothingness.  If one was to simply not exist, they would be perfect at not violating all of the commandments.  Surely no Christian would dare say Jesus was nothing.  Because He did SO much more! 

This is what Adam and Eve were meant to do too.  To tend to earth and be good stewards of God’s creation.  Basically to bless God’s creation.  Then we are told the descendants of Abraham were to be a blessing to the world, and then Jacob (who became Israel) would bless the world.  All of them failed to do that, until the One Israelite, the perfect One came to actually be that promised blessing.  Sure the Israelites were not perfect, the violated the 10 commandments, and were given the means to atone for those violations.   But if they would have kept all the commandments, would they have been that blessing?

I think yes and no.  I do think they would have been that blessing, BUT not because they followed some rules, but because the reason why those rules were given.  They were given because a sinful man could not be a blessing to the world.  We can do nothing of ourselves, we need God to bless the world through us, and when we turn from God, we cannot do that.  This is what Jesus did.  He did follow the commands, but that wasn’t the point, again, a non-existing person could not violate things.  But He became a blessing to the world, because He remained in God, and He remained in God because He did not violate God’s will.  This is why Jesus revealed the truth behind the commandments.  We cannot bless the world by not murdering, but we must love.  We cannot bless the world by not stealing, but we must give.  Loving and giving is the way to bless the world, and you clearly cannot do those things if you are a murderer or thief.  But we don’t not do those things to be moral people or to impress anyone, we follow those commands to remain in God, and then God allows us to bless the world through Him in His love!     

So if you have the Holy Spirit living in you, then own that, realize that, and bless the world through that.  Look to bless the world, and thank God for allowing you and using you to do that and give Him the glory He deserves for that.  Defy temptations and remain in Him so that you can be used the bless the world.

Even those that believe that Jesus paid for all of our sins and forgiven us of past present and future, don’t not sin to make God happy or out of thanksgiving for what He did for you. I don’t really think not sinning makes God happy.  You could isolate yourself on a stranded island and possibly never sin there, but how does that make you any more useful than one who does not exist.   Don’t sin because you love God and you want to honor Him, and don’t sin because you want to be connected to God so you can be used the bless the world!

If you think Christianity is about following a bunch of rules and trying to not violate them, I would say you are missing the whole point.  Some are turned away from Christianity because they think it is all about following rules.  And I think unfortunately, they are met by a ‘Christian” response that says, you don’t have to follow the rules, because Jesus did that for us, all you need is faith.  And I do believe again there is truth in that, but it is so shallow of a defense of Christianity.  We are free from sin when the Holy Spirit lives in us, we don’t need to struggle to still follow rules.  We actually don’t want violate those rules (the Spirit inside us doesn’t, as the Spirit is willing)  But our flesh wants to indulge in these (the flesh is weak)  And Christians say it is hard to follow the rules, hard to not sin, they need God’s help to not sin.  Of course we need God’s help for anything we do and He gets glory for it all.  But maybe we shouldn’t ask God for help to not sin, rather help blessing others.  Our minds have been transformed by the renewing of our minds!  We now focus on that which is good!  We focus on God and how to allow Him to use us to bless the world.  When we fix our gaze on Jesus, just like Peter did and was able to walk on water, we can bless the world, and not sinning will be an thing that happens, but that won’t be our focus, but and byproduct.

This is why we must meet with God daily and multiple times a day, to remain focused on Him so we can walk on water and we won’t sin.  But when we forget to meet with Him, when our gaze strays from Him, we begin to sink, and begin to sin, and we cannot bless the world, as we are drowning with the rest of them struggling to survive, panicking, flailing.  And wonder why people don’t believe the words we say when we try to share Jesus as they watch us flailing about like they are, angry, wanting their own justice, trying to do what is right in their own eyes, and violating their own conscience with a means to an end of getting that justice they believe needs to be had.  Instead, have faith in God, He will have justice, He wants us to love, to focus on Him, and bless the world.

We don’t love others because God first loved us, in the sense of a quid pro quo.  We don’t feel compelled to love because of how thankful we are of what He did for us.  He is love, and His Spirit lives inside us, so we are love.  We can’t not love, that is who He is transforming us to be.  It should slowly become who we are.  It shouldn’t be a difficult choice we have to make or feel compelled to make, it should be normal, or easy, like breathing air, or walking on water. 

I do believe walking on water was a simple task for Jesus or Peter, just like walking on land.  It wasn’t anymore difficult than breathing or doing anything we do daily…….when we are focused on Jesus, or as Jesus said, when we remain in Him.  When we remain in Him, much fruit is produced.  Not because we are trying to produce fruit, or struggling, like it is the 100^th pushup we are on, but rather like taking a the 10^th step of the day or the 100^th breath, it is almost unconscious.  This shouldn’t be a struggle to love or do bear any fruit of the spirit.  It only becomes a struggle when we get distracted with the worries and dangers of this world or the spiritual realm.  Like Peter, once he turned his eyes away from Jesus, he slowly started looking or hearing or acknowledging the waves and wind and then walking on water was a difficult thing.  With all his might, and I am sure he tried hard to continue to walk on water, he could not do it.  Anymore than we can love another person when we are distracted by the world and no longer remaining in Him.  That is why “apart from me, you can do nothing”.  Remaining in Him, walking on water or loving others is as simple and natural and unconscious as breathing or walking on land.  But distracted from Him, it is as difficult as walking on water or loving others, and no matter how hard you try, you will fail.  He doesn’t want your goal to be to love others or to walk on water, just as being a moral person was not the goal of Jesus, merely a byproduct.  The goal of Jesus was to honor the Father and remain in Him, and in that, much fruit was produced without even trying.

I heard a message the other day about encouraging/comforting/reassuring those who are scared/concerned by “the unpardonable sin”.  What if I committed it in my past?  What if I mess up and commit it in the future?  And they are reassured that “nothing can snatch you out of my Fathers hand” or other verses that can reassure one who is concerned.  And that is good I guess to reassure folks with those verses.  But why exactly do they need reassured?  And of what do they need reassurance of?  That they will be in heaven?  Have eternal comfort?  They know it is not of their doing that they get that, they know they don’t deserve it, but thanks to Jesus they get to partake of it.  But do we need to reassure them that they get to partake of it?  What do they want to partake of?  Is life not more than chasing personally favorable eternal outcomes?

First I believe the only unpardonable sin, is the one being willingly and unremorsefully committed.  That is to say that murderers, thieves, adulterers ect., will not be in heaven.  Heaven is a place where everyone there actually wants the will of God done.  The also want this on earth, but fail, but they do want God’s will.  When they spend time with God, and reflect on what they actually desire, it is God’s will done, they know God is the only God, the perfect, righteous, loving and merciful Creator who’s will is perfect and what they desire in that moment.  But on earth in the bodies of flesh, we get distracted and lose sight of that ultimate desire and end up sinning.  To which we again have time to reflect, confess, repent and try again.  Only God knows our hearts and what we truly want.  But if you want credit for your efforts, if you think you can do a better job than God, heaven would be hell.  That is why no active sinners will be in heaven, because they don’t want heaven, they don’t want God.  The holy spirit inspires or reveals the truth of God to us.   Jesus is the Truth, He says it Himself.  And when you reject that Truth, the Spirit revealing that to you, you are rejecting God.  Of course that is unforgivable.  But not that God refuses to forgive you, but that you won’t allow Him to because of your pride.

But lets say there is an unforgivable sin.  The very notion of this possibility is what I don’t like about traditional doctrinal teaching.  It almost makes a game out of life.  How you have to follow these rules and formulas to win it (or let someone else win it for you).  But lets say there was a sin that God refused to forgive no matter how much you asked/begged.  How would you live?  How would your life change? 

Maybe earlier in my life I did commit this unforgivable sin, and in those traditional doctrinal eyes, I am now going to hell when I die.  So what do I do now?  Live all the desires of my flesh while I have life here? May it never be!  If that was your answer, I would greatly question your salvation.  You don’t just believe in Jesus to be saved from hell, He isn’t a fire blanket.  Or believe in the Bible because it is right and try to follow the rules of the Bible.  It is a transformation, you now know why you were created, and want to live life that way.  Understanding you were created to honor God and have Him help you do that.  That is what salvation is to me, a Truth.  Once you know something, you can’t unknow it.  Once you learn 1+1=2, you can’t unknow it.

 I don’t live a ‘good/moral life’ because God sent His Son to save me, or because heaven might be my reward.  I live my life to honor God because I now know that is what I was created to do.  It is a Truth/revelation I can’t unknow.  It is a firm foundation that cannot be shaken.  No one can scare me or change the way I fundamentally live.  This is a Truth the Father has given to me, and no one can take it from His hand.  This salvation isn’t some mystical force God gave me through belief in His Son’s atonement and because a scripture says no one can take it from His hand, it’s a mantra I reassure myself with because I believe the Bible is the Word of God (or I keep telling myself that because if I lose faith in what I say I believe I fall apart).  It is a truth, a truth that can’t be taken away from me. 

If I am doomed to hell, I still praise God for who He is.  This isn’t quid pro quo.  I don’t praise God (just) because He saved me or sent His Son to save me.  I can’t not praise Him, just like the Sun can’t not burn gasses, it is what it does, what it was created for.  I am not living a good/moral life to be an example (though in living a life connected to God in obedience, it is a great example that can lead others to know Him), I don’t live my life in thanks (though I am thankful for the many blessings of God).  I live my life in truth, the truth that Jesus revealed to us, the Truth that Jesus is/was that all things were created for His glory.  God created all things and is sovereign over all things and He deserves all the credit and glory.  I do my best with what He has given me, give thanks for His blessings, thanks for the ‘hard times’ (that point me to Him) and am fully aware that I am but dust.  Just dust, yet He still loves me as an individual and wants to use me for His glory. 

If I end up at the judgement seat and God says to me “Well, sorry, but you committed the unforgivable sin, so you go to hell”.  Praise to God, all praise always belongs to God, as His goodness isn’t circumstantial, it has nothing to do with my well being, it is a truth!   I do believe I would be annihilated and rightly so, for we should all be annihilated and have the blessing of life what God gave us taken away as we perverted it.  But He is too merciful and loving, and forgives us and wants to help us honor and obey him. 

God was not forced to sacrifice His Son to save us.  He wanted (His will to crush Him) to sacrifice His Son to save us, because it ties all the OT together and is the greatest demonstration of love, which is who God is.  Jesus is God revealed to man, God is love, He wanted to show His love to help us attempt to fathom it better and did so by Himself dying for us!

This is what I long for and why I write all the ramblings of this blog.  One to glorify God, and in hopes that one day someone will read these and see God and want to know and glorify Him!  Christianity is so simple and logical and amazing, if only you can humble yourself.  You will experience a joy you never had before!  You might end up being a more ‘moral’ or ‘good’ person just as Jesus was a very moral and good person, but this is a byproduct.  Jesus never tried to be moral, He simple wanted to honor the Father, and the Spirit lived in Him and helped Him do moral things which honored the Father.  A tree can’t try to grow fruit, it just accepts the water and nutrients, the fruit is a byproduct.

What if you lived in a world where everything was ‘fake’ (like the Truman show), it is all just props and ‘actors’ made up by God to see how you would live. It wouldn’t matter if we thought that person went to hell, because that person really doesn’t exist, or if we thought that person dies, because they really don’t exist. Would you live life any differently?

I would hope not. If you would, this would say to you, that you haven’t let go of all control or trust the sovereignty of God. Because you don’t have control over these things.

Truman thought he had built a relationship with his wife and his best friend, would he be sad if that person died? Of course he would. But that would be from a personal relation manner. If some person across the world died, it would too be sad, but certainly not in the same personal manner. If you had influence or power bestowed upon you by God, it would absolutely be your duty to try to change things you could change and even more so to pray for those things you wanted changed. But if these people didn’t really exist would you still do the same actions? Why sacrifice and give your last bite of food to the starving man next to you, if he doesn’t even exist. You know you exist and you need food to live. Or do you? Don’t we live on the words that come from the mouth of God and not bread? Should we not give that man bread because we acknowledge the sovereign God who supplied us with that bread and could give us more if He deemed necessary, give that man bread so God may be glorified in our actions with the blessing He gave us? That whole “you never know when you may be entertaining an angel”.

I think we should live as if all people are props or angels being entertained. We don’t live or act because of the outcome or physical result we can control, but rather for the moment, because this act glorifies God, and that is why we exist. We don’t exist to manipulate outcomes, that is a burden we put on ourselves, this trying to become God burden that is so heavy, and always leaves us exhausted and often times turn away from Him to achieve that result we think is needed.

I am not saying don’t build relationships with others, we absolutely should. Loving others is the second greatest commandment. But don’t forget who is in ultimate control, and that you aren’t needed, treat that person as if they are a prop and don’t exist and so of course your actions have no bearing on how they will turn out eternally….because they don’t. Because we are not supposed to be in control of their destiny. Imagine if Truman wanted to save his friends life, but the writers already wrote him out. He would die no matter what, and once ‘off the set’ that guy would live completely independant of ever knowing Truman. If Truman thought he had any influence over that guys destination or life, he was foolish. As foolish as we are when we change the way we live to attempt to control the lives of others in this world, we have no control. But we don’t live for control, but for the moment. I know I keep repeating myself, but it is hard to explain. I want to make it clear that I don’t think we should be selfish or not caring of others, but it is very important as to why we care for others. We care for them, to glorify God, who will be glorified when He helps us do these things and that glory isn’t taken or changed in any way based of what happens after our actions. We share the light of God with others so He may be glorified and that person can repent and now be another who glorifies God, not because we want to prevent that person from eternal suffering, because we have no control over those things. Whatever the “Writer” writes for them will happen.

Generally I would not ‘preach the gospel’ to an agnostic as the ‘first step’.  First, relationship building is important, but even when a relationship is established, it doesn’t do a whole lot of good to preach something that they have to believe in our Bible to follow.  We tell them according to our Bible, our beliefs, they are sinners, they failed their Creator, but He loves them so much that He sent His Son to die on their behalf.   But if they don’t believe, the penalty for disbelief Is eternal pain.   They must suffer for their past (is basically what we tell them).  What if they don’t believe in Bible, we can’t exactly preach the Bible to them.  We can’t tell them our Bible says they are sinner, so they now are.  We can get to that point, but I would challenge you to start from a different narrative, one anyone can relate to, agnostic, atheist, Buddhist.  We have all done bad things in our lives, we all are searching for belonging and acceptance (God created us that way). 

God loves you.  God tells you the exact opposite of above, there is no need to suffer because of your past, you are accepted and loved for who you are, because of who He is.  God doesn’t look at you because of your past achievements or failures, there is no negative bias towards because of your failures, because of hurting or rejecting Him.  Nor is He going to give you an ‘atta boy’ for the ‘good things’ you have done in the past.  He has a plan for you, He has great potential for you, He wants to use you starting now, and forever on.  He wants to use the unique gifts and blessings He gave you, and give you more, so you can magnify Him, and give glory to Him.  That is the simple summary of the Bible, and what my doctrine is based on.

God doesn’t want perfection, He wants us to want perfection.  If a man was perfect and he gave God glory for that perfection, that would be ok, that is basically what Jesus did.  But if a man were to achieve perfection, and boasted about it, what good is this?  Filthy rags.  In order to have any purpose or eternal effect, all things point to the Creator of all.  And if it doesn’t point to the Creator, it is useless, like a filthy rag, a filthy rag cannot be cleaned it is lacking the ability to achieve the purpose it was created for. 

This is the problem with the WWJD mantra or claiming that we want to emulate or be like Jesus or live like Jesus lived.   God doesn’t want us to achieve the status of perfection for perfections sake.  We didn’t offend God by damaging a perfect status.  We offended God by refusing His help to achieve perfection, or claiming we could achieve it of our own strength, or taking credit for anything.  If you want to follow the WWJD or be a disciple of Jesus, then you should absolutely want perfection, but that is only to glorify God, so that God gets glory when it would be achieved, not just to achieve perfection.

I hear in songs of how “it should be my hands where Jesus’ were” or “Jesus did something that I could never do, and we praise Him for that”.  My problem with the first statement is that is makes it seem as if all we have to do is to be crucified and all would be made well.  I know most don’t believe that, but using verses like “The wages of sin is death” and saying that is why Jesus had to die, paints that picture.  And the second statement, makes it seem like all we are trying to do is achieve something, like that is our goal in life, but we failed, good thing someone else did it for us.  What if you could have achieve perfection, what if you never sinned?  Are you then accepted by God?  Do you impress Him?  Did you ‘catch Him on His heels’?  “AHA God, now you have to let me in, I achieved perfection and that is all you wanted of humans?”  You want to shove it in His face? Call Him out on it?  Again, I am sure that is not what people mean by such statements, but that is how that picture is painted.  I have been around enough atheist to see how they rightly and logically see some of the ‘gospel’ arguments/apologetics, and why so many are turned off by well meaning phrases.

But we all know perfection of man is not only not possible, but it is also not the intent.  Again, if God wanted a man to be perfect, He would help Him to achieve that status, like He did Jesus, or possibly Job in his early life of Noah or many of the others in the Bible who are quoted to have been ‘righteous’.  But I don’t think for one second that any of those would have bragged about their righteous status, they knew is was only from God.  God wants us to grow, and to want to achieve perfection.  That is what remaining in Him means.  It means trying your best to follow God’s commands.  But not because He wants those commands followed, but because He wants us to live the most abundant life, and do to that, we must try our best to attain perfection with the only end goal is to praise Him for helping us to achieve that.  Obviously one must know His commands to follow them, but one must also want to follow them, want the will of the Father.  And as that is practiced more and more and focused on, it changes us Rom 5:3-5, that remaining in Him, following His commands, allowing His truths to transform us, slowly changes who we are, and then we are no longer giving to the poor to honor Him, but He is who we are.  We give to the poor because we are love, we become the characteristics of God, achieve that perfection, and then we must always point to Him and thanks Him for transforming us into Him.  If anyone was to claim it was their hard work, their hours of Bible reading, the countless hours of work helping others that transformed them, they lie and all of that was for not.  Their transformation came from God, from them remaining in God, and God transforming them, for His glory, which also mutually beneficial is our lives are abundantly lived, because that is what we were created to do.

Anyone who can look at their lives, truly reflect on it, wonder what their purpose is, see why their were created and who their Creator was/is, if they truly seek Him, I believe they will find Him.  They will find a God who loves them, who wants nothing but the best for them, and does not care 1 iota of a bit of anything they did in their past.

1 Cor 6:9 Unrighteous, thieves ect. Will not inherit the kingdom of God.  Why?  People currently practicing evil are not what God wants.  God wants us to repent.  The Ninevites were instructed that God would destroy them if they did not repent.  They repented, and God did not destroy.  God did not require a sacrifice to stave off His wrath nor did He need to spend His wrath on a substitution.  He has no wrath on the repentant.  The only wrath God has is on those who will not repent, the current sinners.  And His wrath is not an angry God or even a loving God, it is not a God bound by some unwritten rule that God must be angry with sin and sin has a penalty that has to be followed, like God’s hands are tied and though He doesn’t want to carry out a penalty, He has to.

If you go to heaven, and you see Hitler their or Pharaoh or and ‘bad guy’ from the past, would you really accuse God of being unholy?  Demand they must suffer for eternity for the past?  I don’t know if those mentioned above any of all would be in heaven, but would that upset you?  Were you upset when the adulterer didn’t’ get stoned?  The law says adulterer’s must be stoned right?  Isn’t God “bound” by some made up law above Him that sin must be punished?  Jesus didn’t know about this ‘law’.  Was Jesus unholy for not upholding this law?

In order to have a baby a man needs to lie with a woman right?  Luke 1:37 say “For nothing will be impossible with God”.  But scriptures say a Prov 11:21 says the wicked will not go unpunished right?  Isn’t that saying sin must be punished?  Surely a just God HAS to punish sin right, or He is not just?  Heb 9:27 says “It is appointed unto men to die, but after this is the judgement”.  So the ‘rule’ is that one can only be saved during their life on this earth, but once they die, they are screwed, nothing can save them.  But remember, a woman can also not have a baby unless a man lie with them right?  Did we forget that all things are possible with God? 

Now it might be possible that in Hades (which is where every unbeliever is right now) might be void of God (though we don’t’ really know that for sure).  And if a place was void of God, then no man could repent, as it is God that leads us all to repentance, if in a place void of God no repentance could occur.  If this was the case, I would believe that on the final judgment day that anyone before God as He judges them who attempted to either say “screw you”, or to the one who attempted to justify themselves in front of God, would of course be cast into Gena/hell.  And in hell the fire burns eternally, but I believe the person perishes, is consumed by fire and ceases to exist.  This is an eternal punishment, no chance of coming back.  You were given the gift of life to praise God and use His blessings for His glory and you failed to do so, so you lose that blessing and your life is done for eternity.  This is a great tragedy.  Someone who could have praised God and magnified His glory even more as He deserves it all, will no longer be able to do that.

But I think there is a possibility of people in Hades and even before the judgment seat, will come to a realization of who God is, and they can repent and be saved.  I do believe God will instantly and like everyone human accept them into His loving arms.  A penalty does not need to occur, God is not unjust for not punishing them.

I could be wrong, and there is plenty of scripture that says that in order to be saved, a human in the flesh must repent and call on Jesus to save them.  But I also remember plenty of scripture that spoke of the Israelites as a ‘child of God’ and they were to be redeemed by God one day by the Messiah.  It wasn’t until Jesus came and revealed the meaning ‘behind’ the scripture that all mankind was to be redeemed by God.  Or when Peter had a vision saying “Do not call anything impure that God has made clean”.  And all of a sudden one could see that it wasn’t just the Israelites that were allowed to be redeemed, but the gentiles too.  What if it is also ‘hidden’ that the dead can be redeemed, not just the living?

God punished and killed many people in the OT, He wiped them from this earth.  Why?  It is a bit of speculation, but I think it could have been merciful of Him to take them, before the did anything worse that what they were already doing.  These were hard, prideful people, maybe the fire of Hades would be enough to help soften and break them, bring them to repentance as God did for Nebuchadnezzar when He made him as an animal.  This man of pride was humbled, and repented and gave praise to God.  Would this man have been humbled if God never brought him from his throne?  Would those from Sodom and Gomorrah have done worse things had they been allowed to live?  I am sure they probably would have wrecked God’s world even more.  I think God wiped many from this earth so that they would stop wrecking His creation and to stop them from becoming worse. 

So did God change in the NT?  No more wiping people from the earth?  That was because Jesus came.  Now God was instead transforming people from the inside, He no longer needed to wipe the wicked to prevent wickedness from spreading, rather to use that wicked and transform them to a holy person, displaying His power and love for all to see so they might be transformed by the same.

So if we can just repent and be saved, then why Jesus?  First of all, that is what God wanted and chose to do.  God wanted to send His perfect Son to die for us to show us the extent that He loved us, that He would withhold nothing from us.  And if one wants God’s will and repents, and it is God’s will they confess to Jesus and allow His death to atone for their sins, that is clearly what one who wants God’s will will believe and do.  Isiah was given a hot coal and his sins were forgiven.  God is the only one offended when we sin and only He can forgive and it has the authority to set any conditions as to how to achieve forgiveness He wants.  If He wanted to snap His finger or speak some words (as Jesus does do to forgive sins of the adulterer) He could.  But God chose Jesus’ atoning death on the cross to achieve that, and that is how He wrote the entire OT and the customs of the Israelites to foreshadow what Jesus would ultimately do for us.  Second, we didn’t think it was that simple.  God’s people thought to be holy, one had to follow many rules abstaining from offending God and it was ones own strength, character and desire that holiness came from.  Jesus greatly had to fix that and reveal the truth to that.  That holiness is obtained from remaining in God, it comes from God and He allows us to display it for others to praise Him.  God used the Spirit in Jesus to reveal the hidden truth to us and then gave us that Spirit to reveal more things to us and help us.  But just as the sacrifices of the Israelites became an abomination to God, the act of calling on Jesus’ name is just as much of an abomination to God if one does not repent and want the will of God in their lives.

This is to speak on those who feel motivated to preach to others because of what they call love. That they don’t want them to spend eternity suffering in hell so they preach to them from the perspective of a fire blanket. I love others, but I also love God, and I want them to glorify God here while on earth and for eternity, I want to pull them out of the hell they are in now not knowing God. I really don’t see the benefit of a death bed conversion, like it is a last min save, or getting someone to say a few words hoping they believe it in hopes to prevent them from going to eternal hell, as if that is some change that happens when they die. How are they not in eternal hell now? The wages of sin is spiritual death, they have been dead for a long time, in hell for a long time, this isn’t just something that is going to happen when they physically die. Like you think you can trick one past God last min. God know when they are going to die, and there is probably a reason they are going to die, they need Him. If He can’t get their attention on earth, well maybe it would be better for some suffering in Hades to soften them and bring them to the light. Isn’t this what happens to gold? Isn’t it thrown into intense fire to burn off the impurities, so that one can have pure gold? Could not the fire of Hades soften a man and get him to finally give up and turn to God?

The Bible does say that every knee will bow and tongue confess that Jesus Christ is LORD. It doesn’t say this will come from only those in heaven. But if one was to call on the name of the LORD, they shall be saved right? If every tongue confesses He is LORD, they every tongue shall be saved. This is also why I believe in annihilation. If you do not exist, if you have been consumed, you no longer have the ability to confess or not. And those that haven’t don’t exist, and those that still exist will confess. Either that, or this is speaking of those in Hades who have been softened and will all confess, and be saved. There is no word for penalty in the Hebrew or Greek language used in the Bible. There is no such word that suffering has to happen because of acts committed. Whenever God commands those to be killed or kills someone it wasn’t because of the acts they committed in the past, it is because He knows their hearts and knows they want to still commit those same acts. But if there was such a rule or a word, we must remember nothing is impossible with God. In fact that very statement is made right after the parable of Lazarus and the rich man. They claim how a chasm is fixed and for man it is impossible to cross. Matt 19:26 Jesus says “With man, this is impossible, but with God all things are possible”. This is true even on earth though with the living. By mans efforts alone, we could not achieve salvation or admittance to the kingdom of heaven, or be seen as righteous to God. But with God, all things are possible, and God made this possible for man, by sending Jesus to save us, to grant us admittance, to make us righteous when we repent. I don’t see why this impossibility is seen as so ‘easy’ to overcome for God, but the possibility for someone to be saved from Hades is too impossible for God? So “impossible” that we even started to make up doctrine about how God must be holy, and can’t allow anyone to repent in Hades, or it would contradict His own holiness. This is almost like the poor Jews who were burdened with all the extra rules the Pharisees laid upon them. We shouldn’t be burdened by the souls of others, we cast our burdens on Him, for He cares for us. We trust His sovereignty. We simply do our best to show His love and light to others to glorify God and let Him take care of the souls.

I don’t have all the answers, and if you are looking to beat a technicality or to use my words above to not worry about saving anyone because they might have other chances. I would greatly question your salvation. Stop trying to follow rules and formulas. Do your best, love God and love others. Jesus even ‘sat around’ for 30 years. I am sure He followed God and remained in Him for that time and He grew in His body and the Spirit. But it wasn’t until God called Him to ministry that He began to minister. I am not speaking of a general command like the great commission, but God directly called Jesus around 30, Jesus even said that before then, it wasn’t His time. I don’t know how old Saul was when he became Paul. Just imagine what good Paul could have done if he started 30 years earlier, or Jesus right? What if He had began His mission at age 20, when considered an adult fit for war? God has plans for you, and in His perfect timing will let you know what they are if He was to call you. But for now, we wait, trust and remain in Him. Don’t think you are supposed to do the things now that you might end up doing at age 60 and look back and wish you could do those things now. Or wish if you were where you are now 10 years ago, you could have done such great things. God will get those things done (those things being His will) regardless of you, or your age, or your spiritual maturity. Stop trying to achieve what God has planned for you in chapter 40 in when your life’s story is only in chapter 28. Cast your burdens of what you think should/could be achieved on Him, trust in His sovereignty, and just remain in Him, ask Him to help you follow His commands, give Him the glory for where you are now, trust Him as to where you will be later.